Ellen Isham Schutt — USDA Pomological Watercolors
64 restored plates, 1904–1916, from the USDA Pomological Watercolor Collection — with a biography from the archival record.
Ellen Isham Schutt (1873–1955) was born on 15 April 1873 in Arlington, Virginia, and died in nearby Falls Church on 5 December 1955. She worked as an illustrator for the U.S. Department of Agriculture from 1904 to 1914, one of the group of women — with Deborah Griscom Passmore, Amanda Newton and Bertha Heiges — who produced the bulk of the Division of Pomology’s fruit record. The National Agricultural Library credits her with more than seven hundred watercolours, signed “E. I. Schutt”, including an extensive run of pecans and other nuts as well as apples, citrus and newly introduced tropical fruit.
She also drew cacti: cactus drawings of 1907–08 by Schutt, Newton and Passmore are in the Smithsonian’s Department of Botany, and she contributed illustrations to Britton and Rose’s The Cactaceae. From 1911 to 1915 she painted 286 watercolours of apples for the University of California, documenting storage disorders and insect damage in a full view and half-section; that series, now at UC Davis, records her as a pomological artist at Berkeley in 1914–15.
The plates
Every plate in our restored set credited to Ellen Isham Schutt, by fruit then variety. Each has its own anchor (for example #downing-stranger-apple). This is our holding, not the painter’s complete output; the National Agricultural Library holds the rest.
By period
1900–1909 · 20 plates
20 plates in this set from the 1900s: citrus (6), stone fruit (5), apples (4).
Liveland Raspberry Apple · Magyar Apple · Matlack Apple · Okoboji Apple · Nellie Apricot · Naranja Limus Citrus · Sugar Pulp Grape · Ulster Grape · Imperial Grapefruit · Lambs Lemon · Amiri Mango · Bonboro Orange · Dugats Improved Orange · Golden Nugget Orange · Elberta Cling Peach · Emma Peach · Wickson Plum · Eaton Raspberry · Hoosier Black Cap Raspberry · Rutland Plumcot Stone Fruit
1910–1919 · 43 plates
43 plates in this set from the 1910s: citrus (11), stone fruit (11), grapes (8).
Downing Stranger Apple · Dunsmore Apple · Jonathan Apple · Magoon Apple · Yellow Newtown Apple · Russian Apricot · Olds Avocado · Abbess D' Oignies Cherry · Govenor Wood Cherry · Ida Cherry · Montmorency de Savigny Cherry · South Giant Cherry · Spate Amarelle Cherry · Valdurur Cherry · Washington Navel Citrus · Aneb El Cadi Grape · Campbells Early Grape · Coristano Grape · Muscat de Frontignan Grape · Takayo Grape · Takayo Black Land Grape · Teneron Grape · Ulliade Blanche D'Ambre Grape · Budded Grapefruit · Caloosahatchie Grapefruit · Chimera Grapefruit · Curry Special Grapefruit · Natsumikan Grapefruit · Pink Fleshed Grapefruit · White Sweet Grapefruit · Eureka Lemon · Fresh Yellow Lemon · Ameeri Mango · Washington Navel Orange · Carpenter Cling Peach · Switzerland Peach · Bosc Pear · Clairgeau X Howell Pear · Easter Beurre Pear · Triumph Persimmon · Red June Plum · Golden Queen Raspberry · 20th Century Strawberry
Undated · 1 plate
Plates per year (this set)
Sources & citation
- Ellen I. Schutt Pomological Watercolors, D-453 — Online Archive of California (UC Davis finding aid, biographical note)
- UC Davis Library (2015), 'Ellen Schutt Pomological Watercolors now online'
- Ellen Isham Schutt — Wikipedia
- Ellen Isham Schutt — Database of Scientific Illustrators 1450–1950, University of Stuttgart
- 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 Ellen Isham Schutt — 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. 1 plate carries no year on the record. To cite this page: Madten, “Ellen Isham Schutt — USDA Pomological Watercolors,” https://www.madten.com/reference/ellen-isham-schutt-usda-watercolors, 2026-10-29.