Deborah Griscom Passmore (1840–1911) was a botanical illustrator for the U.S. Dept of Agriculture who specialized in paintings of fruit. She rose to lead the staff artists and contributed over one~fifth of 7500 paintings in the Pomological Watercolor Collection...

...At the time, major fruit-producing regions in the United States were beginning to emerge, as farmers worked with the USDA to establish orchards for expanding markets. Photography was not yet in widespread use, so the government relied...

...on artists like Passmore, Amanda Newton, Elsie Lower, Ellen Isham Schutt, and Royal Charles Steadman to produce technically accurate drawings for its publications. As logistics in the agricultural industry had not yet evolved to deal with the vagaries...

....of transporting fruit, these publications were also the first time that many people saw fruits like pears, strawberries, apples, mangoes, grapes, and bananas. #InternationalWomensDay