Meet the Women Illustrators of the Pomological Watercolor Collection | Lady Science

“The USDA began to publish an annual volume of their best scientific papers as a yearbook in 1894. An assistant pomologist at the USDA, William A. Taylor began writing a section called Promising New Fruits in the 1901 edition, in which a dozen of Passmore’s illustrations of peaches, grapes, apples, pears, and oranges are featured, though only identifiable through her signature. Her work continued to accompany this column until her death in 1911. Edward Lee Greene, a botanist known for “Landmarks of Botanical History,” said at the time: “Never in any book did I see a plate that looked as if the original equaled these; I did not know that they could be painted with such perfection.”

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Deborah Griscom Passmore (1840–1911) was a botanical illustrator for the U.S. Department of Agriculture who specialized in paintings of fruit. Via Wikipedia Commons