Muscatel Grapes antique print. Raisin Grapes lithograph c1897.

by Passmore, Deborah Grisscom

Gordo Blanco Muscatels and Alexandria Muscat Grapes lithographed by Deborah Griscom Passmore and Louis Charles Christopher Krieger, for the United States Department of Agriculture Yearbook, published circa 1897.

The United States Department of Agriculture began publishing octavo-sized lithographs for Apples of New York, a report written by Station horticulturist Spencer Ambrose Beach (1860-1922), who continued the research of the first Station horticulturist, Emmet S. Goff (1852-1902). From 1883 to 1900 Beach's research included over 700 species of apples and crabapples!

Between 1897 and 1920 Yearbooks were published to illustrate the wide range of fruit produced in the United States. From 1905 to 1925, the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station published a series of seven monographs on hardy fruits as part of their annual report.  As they were published essentially to promote the growing of fruit in the United States, there was not an enormous circulation, so these beautiful illustrations are rarely seen today.

Size 23 x 14cm (9 x 5.5 inches). Slight damage to page extremities.