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50-508: The archive spans the years in which American agriculture greatly expanded the range of fruits and vegetables grown on a commercial scale and developed many new cultivars. The USDA artists created the watercolors in an effort to catalog these cultivars—many of which went under different names in different regions of the United States—and to show the damage resulting from typical diseases and pests of specific fruits. During this period, many of

100-603: A 1919 work entitled The Cactaceae that was published by the Carnegie Institution . 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. Corcoran died before Passmore could gain work through this connection, and instead she took

150-547: A climate and tradition that can be claimed as foundational for ecofeminism." 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

200-437: A disease found in the 19th century to be spread by infected mosquitoes. After two decades of poor health, John Claypoole died in 1817. Ross continued the upholstery business for 10 more years. Upon retirement, she moved in with her daughter Susanna Claypoole (1786–1875), in a section of Abington Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania , while Susanna's older sister Clarissa (1785–1864) took over their mother's business back in

250-473: A documentary medium, so the government relied on artists to produce technically accurate drawings of cultivars for its publications. Some 65 different artists are represented in the collection, of whom one-third were women; working as a government illustrator was one of the few artists' jobs open to women at a time when they were just beginning to be able to gain formal training in American art schools. All but

300-603: 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. Her first cousin Deborah Passmore Gillingham (1820–1877) was also a botanical artist, though an amateur whose work

350-423: A handful of the collection's 7584 watercolors were created by just nine of the artists, of whom six were women. The top three contributors were Deborah Griscom Passmore , Amanda Almira Newton , and Mary Daisy Arnold , who each painted over 1000 watercolors and between them are responsible for half the collection. Passmore's watercolors in particular have been called the finest done by the early USDA illustrators and

400-731: 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. Betsy Ross Elizabeth Griscom Ross (née Griscom ; January 1, 1752 – January 30, 1836), also known by her second and third married names, Ashburn and Claypoole ,

450-595: 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. Passmore

500-400: A long, narrow pennant; and (3) a short, narrow pennant. The ensign was a blue flag with 13 stripes—seven red stripes and six white stripes in the flag's canton (upper-left-hand corner). It was flown from a pole at the rear of the ship. The long pennant had 13 vertical, red-and-white stripes near the mast; the rest was solid red. It flew from the top of the ship's mainmast, the center pole holding

550-409: A national treasure. Among the other most prolific artists were Royal Charles Steadman (over 850 watercolors), J. Marion Shull (who later became a noted plant breeder; over 750 watercolors), Ellen Isham Schutt (over 700), Bertha Heiges (over 600), Elsie E. Lower (over 250), William Henry Prestele (over 100), and the noted mycologist Louis Charles Christopher Krieger . Another artist whose work

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600-447: A peaceful post-war existence, as Philadelphia prospered as the temporary national capital (1790–1800) of the newly independent United States of America, with the first president, George Washington , his vice president, John Adams , and the convening members of the new federal government and the U.S. Congress . In 1793, her mother, father, and sister Deborah Griscom Bolton (1743–1793) all died in another severe epidemic of yellow fever ,

650-474: A research paper to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania in which he claimed that his grandmother had "made with her hands the first flag" of the United States. Canby said he first obtained this information from his aunt Clarissa Sydney (Claypoole) Wilson in 1857, 20 years after Ross's death. Canby dates the historic episode based on Washington's journey to Philadelphia, in the late spring of 1776,

700-567: A single flag, but rather what her story tells us about working women and men during the American Revolution. Betsy Ross School in Mahwah, New Jersey is named for her. On January 1, 1952, the U.S. Post Office issued a commemorative postage stamp to honor the 200th anniversary of her birth. It shows her presenting the new 13-striped, 13-starred flag to George Washington , with Robert Morris , and George Ross present. The design

750-484: A symbol of women's contributions to American history. American historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich further explored this line of enquiry in a 2007 article, "How Betsy Ross Became Famous: Oral Tradition, Nationalism, and the Invention of History". Ross was merely one of several flag makers in Philadelphia (such as Rebecca Young , who is historically documented to have made the earlier Grand Union Flag of 1775–76, with

800-619: A year before the Second Continental Congress passed the first Flag Act of June 14, 1777 . In the 2008 book The Star-Spangled Banner: the Making of an American Icon , Smithsonian Institution experts point out that Canby's recounting of the event appealed to patriotic Americans then eager for stories about the Revolution and its heroes and heroines. Betsy Ross was promoted as a patriotic role model for young girls and

850-525: Is a popular tourist site in Philadelphia, but it is still a matter of historical academic dispute whether she actually lived there, as evidence indicates she actually lived from 1776 to 1779 in a house next door that was torn down after the remaining house was designated. Ross' body was first interred at the Free Quaker burial grounds on North Fifth Street in Philadelphia. In 1856, the remains of Ross and her third husband John Claypoole were moved from

900-515: Is included in the collection is Roberta Cowing . Slightly over half of the watercolors show apple cultivars, a good many of which are no longer cultivated. The remainder range from common types of fruits and nuts (grapes, berries, stone fruit, melons, citrus, walnuts, hickory nuts) to lesser-known native fruits ( Eastern shadbush ) and species newly introduced in the United States or not yet grown there: cherimoya , avocado , natal plum , sweetsop , etc. The specimens depicted were collected throughout

950-651: The Betsy Ross House . However, cemetery workers found no remains beneath her tombstone. Bones found elsewhere in the family plot were deemed to be hers and were reinterred in the current grave visited by tourists at the Betsy Ross House. The Betsy Ross Bridge , connecting Philadelphia with Pennsauken Township, New Jersey , across the Delaware River is named in her honor. Biographer Marla Miller argues that Ross' legacy should not be about

1000-740: The Continental Army . There is speculation that Ross was the "beautiful young widow" who distracted Carl von Donop in Mount Holly, New Jersey , after the Battle of Iron Works Hill , thus keeping his forces out of the crucial "turning-of-the-tide" Battle of Trenton on the morning of December 26, 1776, in which Hessian soldiers were defeated after the crossing of the Delaware River . On June 15, 1777, she married her second husband, mariner Joseph Ashburn. In 1780, Ashburn's ship

1050-615: The National Museum of American History of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. , notes that the story of Betsy Ross making the first U.S. flag for General George Washington entered into the U.S. consciousness about the time of the 1876 centennial celebrations, with the Centennial Exposition then scheduled to be held in Philadelphia. In 1870, Ross's grandson, William J. Canby, presented

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1100-895: The Pennsylvania Navy during the American Revolution. After the Revolution, she made U.S. flags for over 50 years, including 50 garrison flags for the U.S. Arsenal on the Schuylkill River during 1811. The flags of the Pennsylvania navy were overseen by the Pennsylvania Navy Board. The board reported to the Pennsylvania Provincial Assembly's Committee of Safety. In July 1775, the President of the Committee of Safety

1150-510: The British Union Jack of the crosses of St. George and St. Andrew , in the upper corner canton and 13 alternating red and white stripes for the "United Colonies") for the Continental Army , along with many other ships' colors, banners, and flags which were advertised in local newspapers. Rebecca Young's daughter Mary Young Pickersgill (1776–1857) made the flag of 15 stars and stripes in 1813, begun at her house and finished on

1200-543: The English Old Mill Prison and had informed Ross of her husband's circumstances and death. John Claypoole's diary and family Bible was rediscovered 240 years later in June 2020. The couple had five daughters: Clarissa, Susanna, Jane, Rachel, and Harriet (who died in infancy). With the birth of their second daughter Susanna in 1786, they moved to a larger house on Philadelphia's Second Street, settling down to

1250-565: The Free Quaker Burying Ground to Mount Moriah Cemetery . The practice of cemeteries purchasing the remains of famous historical individuals was common in order to drive additional business. The Daughters of the American Revolution erected a flagpole at the site of her grave in her memory. In 1975, in preparation for the American Bicentennial , city leaders ordered the remains moved to the courtyard of

1300-489: The Pennsylvanian fleet. An entry dated May 29, 1777, in the records of the Pennsylvania Navy Board, includes an order to pay her for her work. It is worded as follows: An order on William Webb to Elizabeth Ross for fourteen pounds twelve shillings and two pence for Making Ships Colours [etc.] put into William Richards store……………………………………….£14.12.2 The Pennsylvania navy's ship color included (1) an ensign; (2)

1350-772: The Rev. Aeneas Ross, a Church of England (later Episcopal ) priest and assistant rector at the historic city parish of Christ Church . Griscom and Ross eloped in 1773, marrying at Hugg's Tavern in Gloucester City, New Jersey . The marriage caused a split from her Griscom family and meant her expulsion from the Quaker congregation. The young couple soon started their own upholstery business and later joined Christ Church, where their fellow congregants occasionally included visiting colony of Virginia militia regimental commander, colonel, and soon-to-be-general George Washington (of

1400-606: The Rosses had been married for two years. As a member of the local Pennsylvania Provincial Militia and its units from the city of Philadelphia , John Ross was assigned to guard munitions. He died in 1775. According to one legend, he was killed by a gunpowder explosion, but family sources provide doubts about this claim. The 24-year-old Elizabeth ("Betsy") continued working in the upholstery business repairing uniforms and making tents, blankets, and stuffed paper tube cartridges with musket balls for prepared packaged ammunition in 1779 for

1450-505: 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. 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

1500-433: The United States and its territories and in nearly 30 other countries as well. The typical watercolor in the collection depicts the whole fruit (sometimes with its leaves) together with a half-view showing its flesh and seeds; some show the fruit in a diseased state. [REDACTED] Media related to USDA Pomological Watercolors at Wikimedia Commons Deborah Griscom Passmore Deborah Griscom Passmore (1840–1911)

1550-611: 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

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1600-685: The city. Ross, by then completely blind, spent her last three years living with her middle Claypoole daughter Jane (1792–1873) in Philadelphia , which was rapidly growing and industrializing. On Saturday, January 30, 1836, 60 years after the Declaration of Independence, Betsy Ross died at age 84. She was survived by one daughter with John Ashburn, Eliza, and four daughters with John Claypoole: Clarissa, Susanna, Jane, and Rachel, and one sister, Hannah Griscom Levering (1755–1836), who herself died about 11 months later. The so-called Betsy Ross House

1650-545: The early U.S. flag. Hopkinson submitted letters to Congress in 1780 requesting payment for his designs. Hopkinson was the only person to make such a claim in the Revolutionary War era. While Griscom was apprenticed to upholsterer William Webster, she met John Ross, a nephew of George Ross Jr , a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence . John's parents were Sarah Leach and

1700-582: The floor of a nearby brewery, delivered to the commander of the fort the year before the British attack of September 12–14, 1814, on Fort McHenry in Baltimore , during the War of 1812 , (receiving a government-issued receipt for the work of two flags, a large 30 by 42 foot (9.1 by 12.8 m) "garrison flag" and a smaller "storm flag"), then seen by Francis Scott Key (1779–1843) and which inspired him to write

1750-614: The frequent smallpox epidemics in the autumn of 1762. Ross grew up in a household where the plain dress and strict discipline of the Quakers dominated. She learned to sew from a great aunt, Sarah Elizabeth Ann Griscom. Ross's great-grandfather, Andrew Griscom, a member of the Quakers and a carpenter , had emigrated in 1680 from England . After her schooling at a Quaker-run state school , Ross's father apprenticed her to an upholsterer named William Webster. Research conducted by

1800-582: The newly organized Continental Army ) and his family from their home Anglican parish of Christ Church in Alexandria, Virginia , near his Mount Vernon estate on the Potomac River , along with many other visiting notaries and delegates in future years to the soon-to-be-convened Continental Congress and the political/military leadership of the colonial rebellion. Betsy and John Ross had no children. The American Revolutionary War broke out when

1850-484: The poem which later became the national anthem , The Star-Spangled Banner . Pickersgill's small 1793 rowhouse is still preserved in East Baltimore's Old Town neighborhood at East Pratt and Albemarle Streets and is known as the " Flag House & Star-Spangled Banner Museum ". Occasionally over the decades, there has been some controversy and disagreement between the relative merits and historical accuracies of

1900-631: The sails. The short pennant was solid red, and flew from the top of the ship's mizzenmast—the pole holding the ship's sails nearest the stern (rear of the ship). Betsy Ross was born on January 1, 1752, to Samuel Griscom (1717–1793) and Rebecca James Griscom (1721–1793) on the Griscom family farm in Gloucester City, New Jersey. Ross was the eighth of seventeen children, of whom only nine survived childhood. A sister, Sarah (1745–1747), and brother, William (1748–1749), died before Elizabeth ("Betsy")

1950-475: The shape of the stars in a sketch of a flag he showed her from six-pointed to five-pointed by demonstrating that it was easier and speedier to cut the latter. However, there is no archival evidence or other recorded verbal tradition to substantiate this story of the first U.S. flag. It appears that the story first surfaced in the writings of her grandson in the 1870s (a century after the fact), with no mention or documentation in earlier decades. Ross made flags for

2000-543: 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. 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. Passmore also painted cacti, and some of her watercolors were printed in

2050-541: The two flag-making traditions and historical sites in Philadelphia and Baltimore. It is thought that Ross's only contribution to the flag design was to change the 6-pointed stars to the easier 5-pointed stars. Scholars, however, accept the claim by Francis Hopkinson —a member of the Continental Congress who designed most of the elements of the Great Seal of the United States —that he created designs for

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2100-417: The watercolors were issued as lithographic illustrations in USDA bulletins and the department's annual yearbooks. The period between 1886 and 1916—when most of these watercolors were painted—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

2150-537: Was Benjamin Franklin. Its members included Robert Morris and George Ross. At that time, the committee ordered the construction of gunboats that would eventually need flags as part of their equipment. As late as October 1776, Captain William Richards was still writing to the Committee of Safety to request the design that he could use to order flags for the fleet. Ross was one of those hired to make flags for

2200-588: 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. 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. Deborah Griscom Passmore

2250-525: Was an American upholsterer who was credited by her relatives in 1870 with making the second official U.S. flag , accordingly known as the Betsy Ross flag . Though most historians dismiss the story, Ross family tradition holds that General George Washington , commander-in-chief of the Continental Army and two members of a congressional committee— Robert Morris and George Ross —visited Mrs. Ross in 1776. Mrs. Ross convinced George Washington to change

2300-417: Was born (another sister, Sarah Griscom Donaldson (1749–1785), was named after the earlier deceased Sarah). Ross was just five years old when her sister Martha (1754–1757) died, and another sister, Ann (1757–1759), only lived to the age of two. Brothers Samuel I (1753–1756) and Samuel II (1758–1761) both died at age three. Two others, twins, brother Joseph (1759–1762) and sister Abigail (1759–1762), died in one of

2350-464: 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

2400-591: Was captured by a Royal Navy frigate and he was charged with treason (for being of British ancestry— naturalization to American colonial citizenship was not recognized) and imprisoned at Old Mill Prison in Plymouth , England. During this time, their first daughter, Zilla, died at the age of nine months and their second daughter, Eliza, was born. Ashburn died in the British jail. Three years later, in May 1783, she married John Claypoole, who had earlier met Joseph Ashburn in

2450-456: Was not published until recently. 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. She hoped to publish these watercolors under

2500-602: 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. She would ultimately work for

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