Every Apple the USDA Painted, 1888–1939

127 heirloom varieties from the USDA Pomological Watercolor Collection, by variety, year and painter.

Between 1886 and 1942 the United States Department of Agriculture commissioned roughly 7,500 watercolours of fruit, each painted from a real specimen so that a variety could be identified by eye before colour photography made that routine. The Pomological Watercolor Collection, now in the National Agricultural Library in Beltsville, Maryland, is the finest record of American fruit ever made — and slightly more than half of it is apples.

Apples dominated for a reason. In the decades after the Civil War the apple was America’s commercial fruit: thousands of named varieties were sold by nurseries, many under several names in different regions, and growers, inspectors and the Division of Pomology needed a reliable likeness of each one. The USDA’s painters recorded them as they arrived — a whole fruit and often a cut half, true to size, on a bare sheet — and the best were reproduced as colour plates in the department’s Yearbook. This page lists every apple plate in our restored set: the variety, the year it was painted, and where the record names one, the painter.

A good many of these varieties are no longer grown. For some, this watercolour is the only surviving image.

The painters

Nearly all of the USDA’s fruit illustrators were women, hired as scientific staff at a time when few institutions employed women as artists at all. 1 of the 127 plates here carry no painter on the record. Each named painter has a page of their own.

Deborah Griscom Passmore · 33 plates here

The collection’s most prolific painter (1892–1911): over a thousand of the USDA’s watercolours are hers. Trained in Philadelphia; her plates set the house style of a single fruit, true to size, on a bare ground.

Royal Charles Steadman · 21 plates here

One of the few men on the staff, a pomological artist from 1915 to 1941 and the collection’s fourth-largest contributor; he also modelled fruit in wax and patented a method for reinforcing the models.

Mary Daisy Arnold · 18 plates here

Joined the USDA in 1904 and painted for it for some forty years; more than a thousand of her watercolours — apples and strawberries above all — are in the collection.

Bertha Heiges · 17 plates here

A staff painter from about 1896 to 1907, credited with over six hundred plates of grapes, pears, plums, peaches and berries; the least documented of the principal USDA painters.

Amanda Newton · 16 plates here

One of the three most productive USDA painters (1896–1928), with well over a thousand watercolours — chiefly apples — usually a whole fruit beside a cut half, signed “A. A. Newton”.

Ellen Isham Schutt · 9 plates here

A USDA illustrator from 1904 to 1914, credited with more than seven hundred watercolours; she later painted a separate series of apples for the University of California.

Elsie Lower Pomeroy · 4 plates here

Painted for the Division of Pomology from the early 1900s until about 1912 (credited as Elsie E. Lower), then had a long exhibiting career as a California watercolourist.

William Henry Prestele · 4 plates here

Son of the lithographer Joseph Prestele and the Division of Pomology’s first staff artist, appointed 1 August 1887; his early plates predate the collection’s standard format.

J. Marion Shull · 3 plates here

Botanical artist (1909–25) and then associate botanist (1925–42) at the USDA, credited with over 750 plates — nuts, citrus, figs and many diseased specimens — and a noted iris breeder.

L.C.C. Krieger · 1 plate here

A Baltimore-trained painter and mycologist, best known for his mushroom paintings; he returned to the USDA in 1929 and painted fruit, bulbs and plant diseases until his death in 1940.

The varieties

Alphabetical. Each variety has its own anchor, so a single apple can be linked directly (for example #american-blush).

Variety	Year	Painter	Plate
American Blush	1906	Amanda Newton
Ananas Reinette	1900	Deborah Griscom Passmore
Black Sweet	1894	Deborah Griscom Passmore
Blenheim	1913	Mary Daisy Arnold
Blenheim Orange	1931	Mary Daisy Arnold
Blenheim Pippin	1901	Bertha Heiges
Cain	1900	Bertha Heiges
Candil Sinap	1900	Deborah Griscom Passmore
Colorado Orange	1904	Bertha Heiges
Conkling	1899	Bertha Heiges
Cooper Early White	1924	Royal Charles Steadman
Cox Orange	1931	Mary Daisy Arnold
Coxs Orange Pippin	—	Deborah Griscom Passmore
Delicious	1925	Mary Daisy Arnold
Dixon	1895	Deborah Griscom Passmore
Doctor Briggs	1900	Deborah Griscom Passmore
Doctor Matthews	1916	Royal Charles Steadman
Doctor Noyes	1899	Deborah Griscom Passmore
Doctor Walker	1912	Mary Daisy Arnold
Domine	1912	Amanda Newton
Dominie	1912	Amanda Newton
Dominion Winter	1900	Deborah Griscom Passmore
Dona Maria	1911	Elsie Lower Pomeroy
Donald	1903	Bertha Heiges
Dove	1899	Deborah Griscom Passmore
Downing Stranger	1910	Ellen Isham Schutt
Doyle	1935	J. Marion Shull
Doyleston	1900	Deborah Griscom Passmore
Draper Best	1911	Elsie Lower Pomeroy
Drumhaller	1926	Royal Charles Steadman
Dudley	1927	Royal Charles Steadman
Dudley Winter	1901	Deborah Griscom Passmore
Duke Of York	1913	Amanda Newton
Dula	1909	Amanda Newton
Dula Beauty	1903	Bertha Heiges
Dulaney	1927	Mary Daisy Arnold
Dumbo	1929	Mary Daisy Arnold
Dunlap	1900	Deborah Griscom Passmore
Dunsmore	1912	Ellen Isham Schutt
Earlham	1938	Mary Daisy Arnold
Early Breakfast	1899	Deborah Griscom Passmore
Early Chandler	1894	Deborah Griscom Passmore
Early Cluster	1898	Bertha Heiges
Early Cooper	1926	Royal Charles Steadman
Early Edward	1928	Royal Charles Steadman
Fameuse	1912	Mary Daisy Arnold
Givens	—	not recorded
Golden Ball	1905	Amanda Newton
Goodwin	1905	Amanda Newton
Grand Sultan	1922	Royal Charles Steadman
Hackworth	1906	Deborah Griscom Passmore
Herefordshire	1921	Amanda Newton
Hungarian	1902	Bertha Heiges
Indian Favorite	1928	Royal Charles Steadman
Indiana Favorite	1925	Royal Charles Steadman
Indo	1929	Royal Charles Steadman
Ingram	1898	Deborah Griscom Passmore
Iowa Blush	1912	Mary Daisy Arnold
Iowa Flat	1896	Deborah Griscom Passmore
Iowa Keeper	1912	Amanda Newton
Jersey Black	1913	Mary Daisy Arnold
Jersey Sweet	1927	Royal Charles Steadman
Jonathan	1912	Ellen Isham Schutt
Kentucky	1900	Deborah Griscom Passmore
Lady Washington Sweet	1894	William Henry Prestele
Lall Beauty	1917	Royal Charles Steadman
Lamb Abbey Pearmain	1888	William Henry Prestele
Lancaster Greening	1897	Deborah Griscom Passmore
Landakergska	1939	L.C.C. Krieger
Liveland Raspberry	1909	Ellen Isham Schutt
Lowland Raspberry	1927	Royal Charles Steadman
Magog	1903	Deborah Griscom Passmore
Magoon	1911	Ellen Isham Schutt
Magyar	1904	Ellen Isham Schutt
Maiden Blush	1918	J. Marion Shull
Major	1915	Royal Charles Steadman
Makefield	1901	Bertha Heiges
Malinda	1934	Mary Daisy Arnold
Mamma	1897	Deborah Griscom Passmore
Mammoth Limbertwig	1905	Elsie Lower Pomeroy
Mammoth Pippin	1920	Royal Charles Steadman
Manor	1912	Mary Daisy Arnold
Marengo	1900	Deborah Griscom Passmore
Matlack	1906	Ellen Isham Schutt
Mattamuskeet	1913	Amanda Newton
Mcintosh	1908	Elsie Lower Pomeroy
Mcmullen	1905	Bertha Heiges
Moore Extra	1894	William Henry Prestele
Newtown	1913	J. Marion Shull
Northfield Beauty	1901	Bertha Heiges
Northwestern	1919	Royal Charles Steadman
Northwestern Greening	1917	Mary Daisy Arnold
Norton Red	1913	Mary Daisy Arnold
Noyes	1898	Deborah Griscom Passmore
Nusia	—	Deborah Griscom Passmore
Nyack	1913	Amanda Newton
Oakland	1894	William Henry Prestele
Oconee Greening	1899	Deborah Griscom Passmore
Ogleby	1926	Royal Charles Steadman
Ohio Ladyfinger	1902	Deborah Griscom Passmore
Ohio Nonpareil	1897	Bertha Heiges
Ohio Pippin	1920	Royal Charles Steadman
Okabena	1924	Mary Daisy Arnold
Okoboji	1906	Ellen Isham Schutt
Oliver Red	1906	Deborah Griscom Passmore
Olympia	1905	Deborah Griscom Passmore
Oxford Orange	1915	Mary Daisy Arnold
Red Raspberry	1898	Bertha Heiges
Rhode Island Greening	1905	Bertha Heiges
Rochelle	1913	Amanda Newton
Rouge Der Laudel	—	Mary Daisy Arnold
Stayman Winesap	1909	Amanda Newton
Summer Extra	1920	Royal Charles Steadman
Sweet Orange	1894	Deborah Griscom Passmore
Thunderbolt	1910	Amanda Newton
Van Foedenberg	1900	Deborah Griscom Passmore
Wasserziekerks	1903	Bertha Heiges
Willow	1904	Deborah Griscom Passmore
Willowmeade	1896	Bertha Heiges
Windsor	1900	Deborah Griscom Passmore
Winter Cheese	1900	Deborah Griscom Passmore
Winter Green	1929	Royal Charles Steadman
Winter John	—	Amanda Newton
Winter Paradise	1929	Royal Charles Steadman
Yankee	1920	Amanda Newton
Yellow Bellflower	1904	Bertha Heiges
Yellow Newtown	1914	Ellen Isham Schutt

By period

Plates per year

Sources & citation

• USDA Pomological Watercolor Collection — National Agricultural Library (the originals, with catalogue records)
• USDA Pomological Watercolor Collection — finding aid (NAL ArchivesSpace MS0184)
• White, J. & Neumann, A. (1982), 'The collection of pomological watercolors at the U.S. National Arboretum', Huntia 4(2): 103–124
• Pomological Watercolor Collection — Wikipedia
• The collection on Wikimedia Commons

The original watercolours are in the public domain. The restorations shown here are Madten’s, at web resolution. 5 plates carry no year on the record. To cite this page: Madten, “Every Apple the USDA Painted, 1888–1939,” https://www.madten.com/reference/usda-apple-watercolors, 2026-10-29.