Deborah Griscom Passmore

Last updated • 5 min readFrom Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia
Deborah Griscom Passmore
Deborah Griscom Passmore photo from the Deborah Griscom Passmore Watercolor Album (page 8 crop).jpg
Born(1840-07-17)July 17, 1840
Delaware County, Pennsylvania
DiedJanuary 3, 1911(1911-01-03) (aged 70)
Washington, D.C.
NationalityAmerican
Alma mater Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts

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. [1] 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.

Contents

Dayton (strawberry) watercolor by Deborah Griscom Passmore, 1909 Pomological Watercolor POM00004209.jpg
Dayton (strawberry) watercolor by Deborah Griscom Passmore, 1909

Early life and education

Deborah Griscom Passmore was born in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, on July 17, 1840, the fifth and last child of Everett Griscom Passmore (1787–1868), a farmer, and Elizabeth K. Knight (c.1800–1845), a teacher and preacher for an orthodox branch of Quakers. The youngest of the family, with two older brothers and two older sisters, Passmore was given the forenames Deborah Griscom after her paternal grandmother, who was a first cousin of Betsy Ross. Her mother died while she was still a child, and Passmore was educated at the nearby boarding school where her mother had taught before her marriage. She went on to train as an artist at the School of Design for Women and the Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia. [2] [3] Her first cousin [4] Deborah Passmore Gillingham (1820–1877) was also a botanical artist, though an amateur whose work was not published until recently. [5]

Passmore followed up her Philadelphia art training with a year studying art in Europe. There, she found inspiration in the botanical illustrations of Marianne North at Kew Gardens, England, and when she returned to the United States, she began painting the wildflowers of America as well as lilies and other flowers. [6] She hoped to publish these watercolors under the title Flowers in Water Color: Wildflowers of America, but she never managed to do so and the manuscript is now in the USDA's Special Collections. [6] Passmore prided herself on delineating her subjects with minute accuracy and sometimes used as many as a hundred washes to get the desired effect. The noted botanist Edward Lee Greene was a great admirer of Passmore's flower paintings. [2]

Passmore also painted cacti, and some of her watercolors were printed in a 1919 work entitled The Cactaceae that was published by the Carnegie Institution.

USDA career

Forelle (European pear) watercolor painted in 1900 by Deborah Griscom Passmore (USDA) Pomological Watercolor POM00007002.jpg
Forelle (European pear) watercolor painted in 1900 by Deborah Griscom Passmore (USDA)

Passmore worked in Philadelphia as a teacher for several years before being induced to move to Washington, D.C., by William Wilson Corcoran, founder of the Corcoran Gallery of Art, who was very impressed by her work. [2] [6] Corcoran died before Passmore could gain work through this connection, and instead she took a job in 1892 as an illustrator with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. This was a time when the major fruit-producing regions in the United States were just beginning to emerge, as farmers worked with the USDA to establish orchards for expanding markets. Photography was not yet in widespread use as a documentary medium, 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. [1]

Passmore was one of more than 50 botanical illustrators hired in this early period, and she was quickly promoted, being named the leader of the staff of artists in the Division of Pomology the same year she was hired. One of her first tasks for the USDA was to paint exhibits for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago; she also entered some of her own paintings in the Exposition's art exhibition. [7] She would ultimately work for the USDA for nineteen years, and Alan Fusonie, the head of the National Agricultural Library's Special Collections in 1990, considers her "the finest example of the quality of the early USDA illustrators" and her fruit watercolors in particular a national treasure. [1] : 301–02  In a book on the roots of ecofeminism, Greta Gaard cites Deborah Passmore alongside the nature artists Lucy Say and Grace Albee as helping to "create a climate and tradition that can be claimed as foundational for ecofeminism." [8]

Passmore's artwork for the USDA covered a wide range of fruit including apples, pears, plums, peaches, oranges, persimmons, strawberries, and gooseberries as well as the less-common loquat, kumquat, and Surinam cherry. She was extremely prolific, producing more than 1500 finished watercolors and drawings for the USDA, more than half of which were created between 1895 and 1902. Many of these can be found in the agency's technical reports and publications. In addition, between 1901 and 1911, a selection of her work was published in the department's yearbook, accompanying an annual report on promising new fruits. Among the cultivars she illustrated for the first of these yearbooks were the McIntosh apple and the Wickson plum.

Passmore also taught art privately in Washington, D.C., where she maintained her own studio. She died at home of a heart attack on January 3, 1911.

Much of Passmore's work is held in the USDA's Pomological Watercolor Collection within the National Agricultural Library's Special Collections. Several prints of her work are on permanent exhibition in the library's main reading room. A few of her cacti watercolors are in the collection of the National Museum of Natural History's Department of Botany.

Related Research Articles

The United States National Agricultural Library (NAL) is one of the world's largest agricultural research libraries, and serves as a national library of the United States and as the library of the United States Department of Agriculture. Located in Beltsville, Maryland, it is one of five national libraries of the United States. It is also the coordinator for the Agriculture Network Information Center (AgNIC), a national network of state land-grant institutions and coordinator for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) field libraries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pomology</span> Study of fruit

Pomology is a branch of botany that studies fruits and their cultivation. Someone who researches and practices the science of pomology is called a pomologist. The term fruticulture is also used to describe the agricultural practice of growing fruits in orchards.

Wilhelm Heinrich Prestele was a botanical artist known for his lithographs and watercolor work commissioned by the US Department of Agriculture.

Passmore is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:

Louis Charles Christopher Krieger was an American mycologist and botanical illustrator who was considered the finest painter of North American fungi.

James Marion Shull (1872–1948) was an American botanist known for his iris and daylily cultivars and botanical illustrations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amanda Newton (illustrator)</span> American botanical illustrator

Amanda Almira Newton was a botanical illustrator for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) who specialized in watercolors of fruit. Her work is now preserved in the USDA's Pomological Watercolor Collection, and she is the second-most prolific contributor to that archive of 7600 paintings, with her work representing roughly one-sixth of the total.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elsie Lower Pomeroy</span> American painter

Elsie Lower Pomeroy (1882-1971) was an artist most closely associated with the American Scene Painting movement and specifically California Regionalism or California Scene Painting. She was also one of a small group of botanical illustrators who worked for the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) in the early 20th century.

Adèle Riché (1791–1887) was a French painter. Riché was born, and lived her life in France. She is the daughter of François-Joseph Riché, chief gardener of the Paris Jardin des Plantes. A pupil of Jan Frans van Dael and Gerard van Spaendonck., she is known for her still life paintings, including watercolors, as well as her portraits. She worked most of her life as a botanical painter for the french Natural History Museum in Paris. There, she painted numerous watercolor on vellum for the Museum's collection, as well as illustrating François André Michaux's 1813 Histoire des arbres forestiers de l'Amerique Septentrionale. Her techniques included botanical, entomological, and natural painting, oil, watercolor, and on vellum, and engraving, as well as hand-colouring. She collaborated with Henri-Joseph, Pierre-Joseph Redouté, and Pancrace Bessa, also botanical artists. Appart from her scientific illustrative work, she is also a gold medalist in 1831's Salon. Riché died in Fontainebleau, France in 1878.

Regina Olson Hughes (1895–1993) was an American scientific illustrator in Botanical Art. Born February 1, 1895, in Herman, Nebraska, she became fascinated with the world of plants and flowers. Her parents were Gilbert and Johanna (Sullivan) Olson. At age 10, she contracted scarlet fever and her hearing slowly diminished until she became fully deaf at age 14. In order for her to communicate with her peers, she relied on lip reading and written notes for business work. Hughes retained her speech skills and continued to speak fluently throughout her adulthood. She became proficient in American Sign Language when she enrolled in Gallaudet University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Royal Charles Steadman</span> American painter

Royal Charles Steadman was a botanical illustrator and wax fruit modeler for the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) who also developed a patented method of strengthening wax fruit with plaster on the interior.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ellen Isham Schutt</span> American botanical illustrator

Ellen Isham Schutt was an early 20th-century American botanical illustrator for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Her work now forms part of the USDA National Agricultural Library's Pomological Watercolor Collection.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Cactaceae</span> Monograph by Nathaniel Lord Britton and Joseph Nelson Rose

The Cactaceae is a monograph on plants of the cactus family written by the American botanists Nathaniel Lord Britton and Joseph Nelson Rose and published in multiple volumes between 1919 and 1923. It was landmark study that extensively reorganized cactus taxonomy and is still considered a cornerstone of the field. It was illustrated with drawings and color plates principally by the British botanical artist Mary Emily Eaton as well as with black-and-white photographs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pomological Watercolor Collection</span>

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".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Daisy Arnold</span> American painter

Mary Daisy Arnold was a botanical artist who worked for the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) for over thirty-five years, painting watercolors of a wide variety of fruits. She is one of the three most prolific artists whose work is now preserved in the USDA's Pomological Watercolor Collection.

Alice R. Tangerini is an American botanical illustrator. In 1972, Tangerini was hired as a staff illustrator for the Department of Botany at the National Museum of Natural History by American botanist Lyman Bradford Smith. Prior to working at the Smithsonian Institution, she received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Virginia Commonwealth University. As of March 9, 2017, Tangerini remains the only botanical illustrator ever hired by the Smithsonian.

Beverly Allen is an Australian artist specializing in botanical paintings. Her works are typically life size pieces of plants from her garden or native to Australia. Her artworks have been recognized internationally and collected in many private and public collections. She does workshops at the Royal Botanic Garden in Sydney between her art collaborations and exhibitions.

Roberta Cowing Throckmorton was an American artist, employed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Foley Benson</span> American scientific illustrator

Mary Foley Benson was an American scientific illustrator and fine artist. She specialized in detailed, realistic watercolor paintings of plants and insects.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Fusonie, Alan E. "The Heritage of Original Art and Photo Imaging in USDA: Past, Present, and Future." Agricultural History 64:2 (Spring 1990).
  2. 1 2 3 Passmore, Deborah G. Flowers in Water Color. 1911. Preface to unpublished manuscript, United States Department of Agriculture, National Agricultural Library, Special Collections.
  3. ↑ "Deborah Griscom Passmore (d. 1911)". www.christies.com. Retrieved 2019-05-31.
  4. ↑ Cope, Gilbert, et al. Genealogy of the Sharpless Family, Descended from John and Jane Sharples, Settlers Near Chester, Pennsylvania, 1682, Together with Some Account of the English Ancestry of the Family, Including the Researches by Henry Fishwick, P.H.S., and the Late Joseph Lemuel Chester;and a Full Report of the Bi-centennial Reunion of 1882, Volume 2. Privately published, 1887. Deborah Passmore Gillingham's mother, Hannah Passmore, was a younger sister of Deborah Griscom Passmore's father. Duncan (2010) incorrectly lists Deborah Passmore Gillingham's mother's name as Deborah instead of Hannah.
  5. ↑ Duncan, John. Lilies & Magnolias: Botanical Watercolors of Deborah Passmore Gillingham. Schiffer, 2010.
  6. 1 2 3 White, James J., and Erik A. Neumann. "The Collection of Pomological Watercolors at the U.S. National Arboretum". Huntia: A Journal of Botanical History 4:2 (January 1982), pp. 106–107.
  7. ↑ "Deborah Griscom Passmore Watercolors". Website of the United States Department of Agriculture, National Agricultural Library, Special Collections.
  8. ↑ Gaard, Greta. Ecological Politics. Temple University Press, 2010.

Further reading

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.