7,500 watercolor paintings of every known fruit from around the world commissioned by the US government in 1886, available for download in high resolution



In modern times, where photography technology has developed, it is easy to take and preserve records of plants, fruits, and other objects. However, in the days before photography was developed, it was difficult to take photographs of what one observed. In 1886, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) commissioned numerous artists to paint watercolor paintings of fruits such as apples, cherries, grapes, and persimmons.

USDA ARS Online Magazine Vol. 48, No. 9

https://agresearchmag.ars.usda.gov/2000/sep/colors



USDA Pomological Watercolors - USDA National Agricultural Library
https://search.nal.usda.gov/discovery/collectionDiscovery?vid=01NAL_INST:MAIN&collectionId=81279629860007426

Over 100 Years Ago, the US Government Commissioned 7,500 Watercolor Paintings of Every Kind of Fruit in the Country — Morsel NEW YORK
http://www.morselnewyork.com/foodart/2017/10/3/over-100-years-ago

Susan Fugate, director of the U.S. National Agricultural Library, said, ``Early researchers were unable to photograph fruits and other objects with film or digital cameras, so between 1886 and 1942, the USDA We commissioned various artists to create watercolors, line drawings, and resin models related to the event.'

There were 7,497 fruit watercolor paintings drawn by about 21 artists, and they were used in newsletters, circulars, annual reports, etc. for farmers. Below is part of that collection.

A 1910 watercolor painting of an apple called ' York ' by James Marion Shull.




A 1911 watercolor by Amanda Almira Newton depicting the Muscat Noir Precoche grape variety.




“Billiers Peach” by Deborah Griscom Passmore




'Platano Morado Banana' also by Passmore




These watercolors and line drawings are preserved at the National Agricultural Library in Beltsville, Maryland, USA, and are one of the most valuable collections of American botanical paintings from the late 19th century to the early 20th century. . The National Agricultural Library initially put up a paywall for users who wanted to view these collections in high resolution, but Electronic Frontier Foundation activist Parker Higgins filed a Freedom of Information Act complaint against the USDA in 2015. requested paywalled revenue disclosure based on , and requested public access to the images.

Through lobbying from Higgins and others, USDA made the complete digital archives and high-resolution versions of these collections available for free in 2019.

In addition, on the social news site Hacker News , by training NVIDIA's image generation model ' StyleGAN2-ada ' with a dataset based on the USDA's watercolor collection, an 'animation of an apple changing into another fruit' is generated. It is reported that it did.

Generative Fruit
http://www.highdimensionalcoconuts.com/Work/GenerativeImages/GenerativeFruit/generative_fruit.html

The data of approximately 7,500 fruit watercolor paintings stored by the National Agricultural Library can be downloaded immediately in Torrent format by clicking the download link below, or by using the Torrent magnet link.

Download link: https://archive.org/download/usda-pomological-watercolor-collection/usda-pomological-watercolor-collection_archive.torrent

Magnet link (Torrent compatible software required): magnet:?xt=urn:btih:2f3f472d24980c11d82cb236f04d1f74138e45c4&dn=usda-pomological-watercolor-collection&tr=http%3a%2f%2fbt1.archive.org%3a6969%2fannounce&tr=http%3a %2f% 2fbt2.archive.org%3a6969%2fannounce&ws=http%3a%2f%2fia801808.us.archive.org%2f11%2fitems%2f&ws=https%3a%2f%2fia601808.us.archive.org%2f11%2fitems%2f

Related Posts:

in Art, Posted by log1r_ut