Amanda Almira Newton — USDA Pomological Watercolors

119 restored plates, 1901–1921, from the USDA Pomological Watercolor Collection — with a biography from the archival record.

Amanda Almira Newton (c. 1860–1943) was one of the three most productive painters of the USDA Pomological Watercolor Collection. Born in Pennsylvania around 1860, she was a granddaughter of Isaac Newton, the first U.S. Commissioner of Agriculture. She worked for the Department of Agriculture from 1896 to 1928, producing well over a thousand finished watercolours — chiefly apples, but also strawberries, plums, citrus, persimmons, avocados and cherries — most of them showing a whole fruit beside a cut half, and signed “A. A. Newton”.

From 1896 she also modelled fruit in wax for the department’s exhibits. Several of her paintings were reproduced as colour plates in the USDA Yearbook, among them the Sandersha and Peters mangoes and the Champion peach, and cactus drawings by her are held in the Smithsonian’s Department of Botany. Nothing is recorded of her training; the USDA’s personnel files from before 1921 were destroyed, which is why so little is known of most of these painters. She died in Washington, D.C., in 1943.

The plates

Every plate in our restored set credited to Amanda Almira Newton, by fruit then variety. Each has its own anchor (for example #american-blush-apple). This is our holding, not the painter’s complete output; the National Agricultural Library holds the rest.

Fruit	Variety	Year	Plate
Apple	American Blush	1906
Apple	Domine	1912
Apple	Dominie	1912
Apple	Duke Of York	1913
Apple	Dula	1909
Apple	Golden Ball	1905
Apple	Goodwin	1905
Apple	Herefordshire	1921
Apple	Iowa Keeper	1912
Apple	Mattamuskeet	1913
Apple	Nyack	1913
Apple	Rochelle	1913
Apple	Stayman Winesap	1909
Apple	Thunderbolt	1910
Apple	Winter John	—
Apple	Yankee	1920
Apricot	Bennett	1917
Apricot	Chas. Of Schack	1915
Apricot	Royal	1908
Apricot	Variety 9834	1910
Avocado	Blackman	1910
Avocado	Challenge	1916
Avocado	Champion	1916
Avocado	Dickey	1916
Avocado	Dickey A	1917
Avocado	Mcdonald	1917
Avocado	Purple Wester	1908
Avocado	Senor	1916
Avocado	Ultimate	1916
Cherry	Allen	1915
Cherry	Centennial	1915
Cherry	Chapman	1908
Cherry	Coe	1915
Cherry	Double Nattie	1915
Cherry	Eagle	1916
Cherry	Empress Eugene	1912
Cherry	Montmorency Large	1912
Cherry	Norma	1914
Cherry	Olivet	1915
Cherry	Sparhawk	1915
Cherry	Suda	1915
Cherry	Vladimir	1912
Cherry	Windsor	1910
Citrus	Canton	1908
Gooseberry	Carrie	1909
Grape	Angelina	1908
Grape	Bellino	1911
Grape	Black Hamburg	1917
Grape	Black Kapadjalani	1907
Grape	Bullace	1905
Grape	Charriet	1910
Grape	Chasselas Rose de Falleaux	1917
Grape	Clarette A Gros Grains	1909
Grape	Cornichon	1909
Grape	Muscat Noir Precoce	1911
Grape	Muscat Of Alexandria	1914
Grape	Muscat St. Laurient	1911
Grape	Scheradzouli Blanc	1908
Grape	Scuppernong	1907
Grape	Servan Blanc	1909
Grape	Sunrise	1906
Grape	Terret Monstre	1914
Grape	Trifere du Japon	1911
Grape	Valdepenas	—
Grapefruit	Conner Prolific	1908
Grapefruit	Davis Seedless	1916
Grapefruit	Florida Late	1909
Grapefruit	Inman	1913
Grapefruit	No. 1474	1910
Grapefruit	Towus	1908
Lemon	Etrog	1916
Lemon	Kennedy	1909
Lemon	Lisbon	1914
Lemon	Pica	1908
Lemon	Sport	1905
Lemon	Variagated	1901
Lemon	Villa France	1915
Lemon	Young	1904
Mango	Cambodiana	1908
Mango	Cecil	1910
Mango	Madras	1914
Mango	Maharajah	1910
Orange	Blood Tardiff	1912
Orange	Harts Late	1908
Peach	Carmen	1910
Peach	Early Belle	1911
Peach	Early York	1910
Peach	Frank	1912
Peach	Globe	1908
Peach	Reeds Late Barnard	1911
Peach	Van Meters Late	1910
Pear	Clapps Favorite	1911
Pear	Douglas	1908
Pear	Easter	1911
Pear	Gansel Seckel	1913
Pear	Swedish	1909
Persimmon	American Honey	1906
Persimmon	Amis	1909
Persimmon	Tamopan	1910
Persimmon	Tsuru No Ko	1915
Persimmon	Yeddo Ischi	1910
Plum	Clifford	1911
Plum	Moncelt	1908
Plum	Morgan	1907
Plum	Occident	1912
Plum	Santa Rosa	1907
Plum	Swan	1915
Raspberry	Marlboro	1913
Raspberry	Schaffer	1913
Strawberry	Early Harvest	1912
Strawberry	Early Ozark	1913
Strawberry	Excelsior	1914
Strawberry	Gibson	1915
Strawberry	Grey Dollar	1916
Strawberry	Howard Early	1912
Strawberry	Progressive	1914
Strawberry	Ridgway	1915
Strawberry	Rockhills No. 16	1911
Strawberry	Ryckman	1907

By period

Plates per year (this set)

Sources & citation

• Amanda Newton (illustrator) — Wikipedia
• Wood, M. (2000), 'Pomological Watercolors: A Wealth of Beauty and Detail', Agricultural Research, USDA-ARS
• Amanda Almira Newton — Database of Scientific Illustrators 1450–1950, University of Stuttgart
• Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation — art collection catalogue (Yearbook chromolithographs)
• White, J. & Neumann, A. (1982), 'The collection of pomological watercolors at the U.S. National Arboretum', Huntia 4(2): 103–124 — Appendix I, 'Some U.S.D.A. artists'
• Pomological Watercolor Collection — Wikipedia (per-artist counts, citing the National Agricultural Library)
• Watercolor paintings by Amanda Almira Newton — Wikimedia Commons (the NAL digitisation)
• USDA Pomological Watercolor Collection — National Agricultural Library (the originals, with catalogue records)
• USDA Pomological Watercolor Collection — finding aid (NAL ArchivesSpace MS0184)
• The collection on Wikimedia Commons

The original watercolours are in the public domain. The restorations shown here are Madten’s, at web resolution. 2 plates carry no year on the record. To cite this page: Madten, “Amanda Almira Newton — USDA Pomological Watercolors,” https://www.madten.com/reference/amanda-newton-usda-watercolors, 2026-10-29.