In 1886, a US Agency Set Out to Record New Fruit Varieties. The Results Are Wondrous.

As agriculture in the United States transformed from domestic and local to industrial and national, in 1886 the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) embarked on an ambitious project. To help fruit cultivators protect and profit from their innovations, the agency hired illustrators to recreate images of newly developed varieties of fruits and nuts, capturing the colours, textures and shapes of each in intricate detail. By the programme’s end in 1942, more than 7,500 unique, and often beautiful, images had been produced. In his short film, the Toronto-based filmmaker Sebastian Ko provides lively flipbook tour through the USDA ‘Pomological Watercolor Collection’ to explore its history and legacy. In particular, Ko focuses on the contributions of some of the talented female artists who helped bring the collection to life at a time when very few jobs were available to women.