Peach Twig (Prunus Persica) (1918) by Royal Charles Steadman. Courtesy US Department of Agriculture Pomological Watercolor Collection, Rare and Special Collections, National Agricultural Library
Peach Twig (Prunus Persica) (1918) by Royal Charles Steadman. Courtesy US Department of Agriculture Pomological Watercolor Collection, Rare and Special Collections, National Agricultural Library
Get curated editors’ picks, peeks behind the scenes, film recommendations and more.
As agriculture in the United States transformed from domestic and local to industrial and national, in 1886 the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) embarked on an ambitious project. To help fruit cultivators protect and profit from their innovations, the agency hired illustrators to recreate images of newly developed varieties of fruits and nuts, capturing the colours, textures and shapes of each in intricate detail. By the programme’s end in 1942, more than 7,500 unique, and often beautiful, images had been produced. In his short film, the Toronto-based filmmaker Sebastian Ko provides lively flipbook tour through the USDA ‘Pomological Watercolor Collection’ to explore its history and legacy. In particular, Ko focuses on the contributions of some of the talented female artists who helped bring the collection to life at a time when very few jobs were available to women.
Director: Sebastian Ko
video
Architecture
A 3D rendering of the Colosseum captures its architectural genius and symbolic power
17 minutes
video
Human rights and justice
Surreal, dazzling visuals form an Iranian expat’s tribute to defiance back home
10 minutes
video
Language and linguistics
Do button-pushing dogs have something new to say about language?
9 minutes
video
Art
When East met West in the images of an overlooked, original photographer
9 minutes
video
History of science
Ideas ‘of pure genius’ – how astronomers have measured the Universe across history
29 minutes
video
Values and beliefs
Why a single tree, uprooted in a typhoon, means so much to one man in Hanoi
7 minutes
video
Meaning and the good life
Why Orwell urged his readers to celebrate the spring, cynics be damned
11 minutes
video
Making
On the Norwegian coast, a tree is transformed into a boat the old-fashioned way
6 minutes
video
Animals and humans
One man’s quest to save an orphaned squirrel, as narrated by David Attenborough
14 minutes