(New York, NY, March 2021) – Atelier Éditions is immensely pleased to announce the release of An Illustrated Catalog of American Fruits & Nuts, a kaleidoscopic celebration of the USDA’s pomological watercolor collection, on May 4th, 2021.

The United States Department of Agriculture Pomological Watercolor Collection encompasses over 7, 500 botanical watercolor paintings of evolving fruit and nut varieties, alongside specimens introduced by USDA plant explorers from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Assembled between 1886 and 1942, the collection’s remarkable, botanically accurate watercolors were executed by some 21 professional artists (including nine women). Authored largely before the widespread application of photography, the watercolors were intended to aid accurate identification and examination of fruit varietals, for the nation’s fruit growers. Documenting the transformation of American pomology, the science of fruit breeding and production, and the horticultural innovations accountable for contemporary fruit cultivation and consumption, the USDA’s collection offers fascinating anthropological and horticultural insights concerning the fruits we ecstatically devour, and why.

An Illustrated Catalog of American Fruits & Nuts, Atelier Éditions’ colorful examination of the USDA’s pomological collection contains a delicious cornucopia of illustrations gathered from the collection. Encompassing fruit-suffused anecdotes and observations drawn from the fields of archaeology and anthropology, horticulture and literature, ancient representation and contemporary visual art, offers readers an engaging, biophilic meditation upon the sweetest of all earth’s produce.

An Illustrated Catalog of American Fruits & Nuts features an introduction by Adam Leith Gollner, author of The Fruit Hunters, accompanied by texts from several fruit enthusiasts, including Jacqueline Landey, John McPhee, Michael Pollan, and Marina Vitaglione.

About the collection:

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Pomological Watercolor Collection contains 7,584 watercolor paintings of cultivated fruit and nut varieties, alongside specimens gathered around the world and introduced by USDA plant explorers from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The watercolor collection is preserved in the Special Collections of the National Agricultural Library (NAL), one of five national libraries of the United States. As part of the USDA and the Agricultural Research Service (ARS), the library houses one of the world’s largest collections on agriculture and its related sciences. NAL’s Special Collections unit preserves and provides access to materials significant to the history of agriculture and the USDA, including rare books and manuscripts, document collections, nursery and seed trade catalogs, photographs, and posters.

Details

WATERCOLORS from The U.S. Department of Agriculture Pomological Watercolor Collection

INTRODUCTION by Adam Leith Gollner

Adam Leith Gollner is the author of The Fruit Hunters (2008), The Book of Immortality (2013), and Working in the Bathtub (2020). He has written for The New York Times, The Paris Review, Vanity Fair, The Smithsonian, and The New Yorker online. He lives in Montreal, Canada.

TEXTS by: 

Jacqueline Landey is a writer based in London. She completed an MA in creative writing at the University of East Anglia and has been published by Al Jazeera, National Geographic Traveller (South Africa), Shooter Literary Magazine, Totally Dublin, ArtThrob, and Review 31.

John McPhee is a staff writer at The New Yorker, and has taught writing at Princeton University since 1975. He is the author of 33 books, all published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. His two most recent titles are Draft No. 4 published in 2017 and The Patch published in 2018. He lives in Princeton, New Jersey.

Michael Pollan is the author of How to Change Your Mind (Penguin, 2019), Cooked (Penguin, 2014), Food Rules (Penguin, 2009), In Defense of Food (Penguin, 2009), The Omnivore’s Dilemma (Penguin, 2007), The Botany of Desire (Random House, 2002), Second Nature (Grove Press, 2003), and A Place of My Own (Penguin, 2008). A longtime contributor to the New York Times Magazine, he also teaches writing at Harvard University as well as at the University of California, Berkeley.

Marina Vitaglione is a photographer, photo editor, and writer based between France and London, UK. She is the author of Solastalgia (Overlapse, 2017), a photo/text docufiction on the impact of climate change on Venice, Italy.

PUBLISHED by Atelier Éditions

FIRST EDITION

ISBN 9781733622042

Hardcover

384 pages including

Over 300 color illustrations

8 x 11 inches

Printed sustainably in Italy

Retail: US $50.00 / CDN $70.00 / GBP £44.00

About Atelier Éditions

Atelier Éditions is an independent publishing house and creative consultancy established in Los Angeles in 2015. Authoring archival monographs, contemporary art books, and exploratory printed matter, the atelier regularly curates exhibitions, envisages cultural programming, initiates seminars, workshops, and enacts memorable collaborations.

atelier-editions.com

For more information and high resolution images please contact Alexandra Fanning: alex@alexandrafanning.com +1 (347) 468 – 0735