Amanda Almira Newton (1860-1943)
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE POMOLOGICAL WATERCOLOR COLLECTION RARE AND SPECIAL COLLECTIONS
CURRANTS & GOOSEBERRIES (RIBES SPECIES), HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA
Kawahara Keiga 川原慶賀 (1786 – 1860?)
Bloom — is Result — to meet a Flower
And casually glance
Would scarcely cause one to suspect
The minor Circumstance
Assisting in the Bright Affair
So intricately done
Then offered as a Butterfly
To the Meridian —
To pack the Bud — oppose the Worm —
Obtain its right of Dew —
Adjust the Heat — elude the Wind —
Escape the prowling Bee
Great Nature not to disappoint
Awaiting Her that Day —
To be a Flower, is profound
Responsibility —
Emily Elizabeth Dickinson (1830 – 1886)
Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Herbst (1743-1807) was a German naturalist and entomologist, and a theologian and chaplain for the Prussian army.
Versuch einer Naturgeschichte der Krabben und Krebse’ (An attempt at The Natural History of Crabs and Lobsters)
was possibly the first comprehensive work on the crustaceans and definitely included descriptions and illustrations of previously unknown species.
It was released in instalments between about 1782 and the mid-1790s. There were three volumes of text and an atlas consisting of more than sixty hand-coloured engravings. Various editions were issued, some coloured, some not, and some coloured later.
It is still regarded as a primary source in the field.
Artist: Schutt, Ellen Isham, 1873-1955
Scientific name: Rubus
Common name: brambles
Variety: Eaton
Geographic origin: Leslie, Ingham County, Michigan, United States
Gerardus van Veen (circa 1620 – 1683)
Standing Ruff, pen and brown ink, watercolor, and bodycolor
The Sandpiper
The roaring alongside he takes for granted,
and that every so often the world is bound to shake.
He runs, he runs to the south, finical, awkward,
in a state of controlled panic, a student of Blake.
The beach hisses like fat. On his left, a sheet
of interrupting water comes and goes
and glazes over his dark and brittle feet.
He runs, he runs straight through it, watching his toes.
– Watching, rather, the spaces of sand between them
where (no detail too small) the Atlantic drains
rapidly backwards and downwards. As he runs,
he stares at the dragging grains.
The world is a mist. And then the world is
minute and vast and clear. The tide
is higher or lower. He couldn’t tell you which.
His beak is focussed; he is preoccupied,
looking for something, something, something.
Poor bird, he is obsessed!
The millions of grains are black, white, tan, and gray
mixed with quartz grains, rose and amethyst.
Elizabeth Bishop (1911 – 1979)
Artist: Passmore, Deborah Griscom, 1840-1911
Scientific name: Prunus persica
Common name: peaches
1905
Influence of Pre-cooling on Peaches. Specimen #1 – 34318 – Hard ripe Early Crawford peach delivered at New York in sound condition by precooling and ordinary icing. Specimen #2 – 34318 – Early Crawford peach from California picked green and shipped to New York under ordinary icing in the usual way.
The USDA Pomological Watercolor Collection is in the National Agricultural Library (NAL). As a historic botanical resource, it documents new fruit and nut varieties, and specimens introduced by USDA plant explorers from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
The collection spans the years 1886 to 1942. The majority of the paintings were created between 1894 and 1916. The plant specimens represented by these artworks originated in 29 countries and 51 states and territories in the U.S. There are 7,497 watercolor paintings, 87 line drawings, and 79 wax models created by approximately 21 artists.
Lithographs of the watercolor paintings were created to illustrate USDA bulletins, yearbooks, and other publications distributed to growers and gardeners across America.
“What’s the use of attempting the enlightenment? What a number of times the destroying angel has triumphed over the different nations of the earth – sucking them up & knocking them down”
Richard Dadd (1 August 1817 – 7 January 1886)
Giovanni Nanni (1487–1564)
Secret Gardener 