Deborah Griscom Passmore Watercolors

Collection

Identifier: MS0124

Staff Only

Content Description

The Deborah Griscom Passmore Watercolors consist of an original manuscript titled, Flowers in Water Color: Wildflowers of America, by Deborah G. Passmore. The collection contains 61 original watercolor paintings signed Passmore, as well as several signed sketches, unsigned works, and two watercolors signed by another artist, Dora Paxon. In the front of the volume, there is an anonymous, typescript biography of Passmore, which is immediately followed by a brief, handwritten note detailing Passmore's death, and the signature of Carrie Harrison. (Harrison’s relationship to Passmore is unknown, but she may have been a botanist in the Bureau of Plant Industry, U.S. Department of Agriculture.) There are several newspaper obituaries pasted onto the end of the typescript, below Carrie Harrison's signature.

Dates

Creation: 1911

Conditions Governing Access

Contact Special Collections for access.

Biographical Sketch

Born in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, on July 17, 1840, Deborah Griscom Passmore was educated in a Friends school and studied art under several noted artists, including Thomas Moran. Passmore attended the School of Design and the Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia before relocating to Washington, D.C., where, in 1892, she took an appointment with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Division of Pomology. She painted for many exhibits, and flowers and fruits in watercolor became her specialty.