Deborah Griscom Passmore (1840–1911) was a botanical illustrator for the U.S. Department of Agriculture who specialized in paintings of fruit. Her work is now preserved in the USDA's Pomological Watercolor Collection, and she has been called the best of the early USDA artists. She rose to lead the USDA staff artists, and she became the most prolific of the group, contributing one-fifth of the 7500 paintings in the Pomological Watercolor Collection.
Deborah Griscom Passmore
Dayton (strawberry) watercolor by Deborah Griscom Passmore, 1909
Forelle (European pear) watercolor painted in 1900 by Deborah Griscom Passmore (USDA)
Cerise de Montmorency cherry (Prunus avium), with specimen originating in Linden, Maryland.
Pomological Watercolor Collection
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Pomological Watercolor Collection is an archive of some 7,500 botanical watercolors created for the USDA between the years 1886 and 1942 by around five dozen artists. Housed by the United States National Agricultural Library, it is a unique resource documenting existing fruit and nut cultivars, new introductions, and specimens discovered by USDA's plant explorers, representing 38 plant families in all. It has been called "one of the world's most unusual holdings of late 19th and early 20th century American botanical illustrations".
Watercolor by Deborah Griscom Passmore of Berry variety of peach (Prunus persica), 1905.
Watercolor by Amanda Newton of Japanese persimmon (variety Hachiya), 1915.
Watercolor by Mary Daisy Arnold of the Manhattan variety of strawberries (Fragaria species), 1911.
Watercolor by Elsie E. Lower of diseased Lisbon lemon (Citrus limon), 1910.