ECOMMERCE FOR GOOD - AMERICAN CHESTNUT TREE.
Chinquapin Chestnut. Circa 1917
Watercolor by Mary Daisy Arnold, USDA watercolor artist. Chinquapin Chestnut bred by Dr. Walter Van Fleet at the Bell Experimental Station in Maryland. Circa 1917.
At this time, when the prices of many farm products are verging on the cost of production, and some going far below it, chestnuts alone not only yield a large profit to the grower but sometimes make returns that seem fabulous.
—Charles Parry ... Nuts for Profit, 1897
Chestnut crops were an important part of the American economy. Demand outstripped supply in the late 1800s and early 1900s with the USDA supporting the development of improved varieties.
Dr. Walter Van Fleet entered into the field of experimental horticulture in 1892. In 1916, he transferred to the office of Horticultural and Pomological Investigations where he was permitted to devote himself to plant breeding along such lines as looked promising to him, while at the same time he continued his work with chestnuts and chinquapins.
Working at Bell Station Experimental Plot in Maryland, Dr. Walter Van Fleet performed early chestnut hybridization work. Van Fleet went on to make thousands of crosses, using many species, between 1900 and 1921. For his early crosses he used the native Chinquapin, C. pumila and European and Japanese cultivars.
Mary Daisy Arnold was a botanical artist who worked for the USDA for over thirty-five years, painting watercolors of a wide variety of fruits and nuts. She is one of the three most prolific artists whose work is now preserved in the USDA's Pomological Watercolor Collection.
During the late 1800’s and early 1900’s the USDA hired watercolor artists to travel around the US to create watercolors of American Agriculture. Two of the of over 8700 watercolors featured cousins of the American Chestnut - the Boone Chestnut (a hybrid variety) and the Chinquapin Chestnut (some say father or mother of the American Chestnut). While the Boone Chestnut and Chinquapin Chestnut are not pure American Chestnuts, they are nonetheless beautiful watercolor renditions from the era when the American Chestnut was being decimated.
We are happy to lend their print beauty and place in history to the effort of raising donations to be used for the restoration of the American Chestnut tree.
Our sources of information, research and archival images include our own Buffalo River Co collection, the USDA Pomological Watercolor Collection, and from such articles as "Chestnut Breeding In The United States," by Dr. Sandra L. Anagnostakis, Department of Plant Pathology and Ecology, The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station
Our digital archivist has lightly restored and enhanced the images in preparation for printing your Giclee print order. We print the entire image as it was created many years ago. That means we also reproduce the artworks aged patina, subtle imperfections, and signs of aging.
Our Giclee prints are created to look like the original, as if you wandered into a vintage store and saw it hanging on the wall with an aged patina that only the vestige of time can impart … so that their timeless essence is evoked for display in your home, office, mountain cabin, or lake house.
The American Chestnut Series prints are part of our eCommerce for Good.
For each series print product purchased, on behalf of the purchaser, we will donate 50% of the purchase price to the New York Chapter of the American Chestnut Tree Foundation, which in turn supports fundraising for the American Chestnut Research and Restoration Project at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF).
The mission is to conduct basic and applied research that will lead to the development of blight-tolerant American chestnut trees (Castanea dentata). The goal is to reintroduce a population of these tolerant trees back into forest ecosystems of the eastern United States.
A $30 Donation from the purchase price of each Fine Art Print (without frame)
A $50 Donation from the purchase price of each Framed Fine Art Print
American Chestnut, castanea dentata, chinquapin, Dr. Walter Van Fleet, Mary Daisy Arnold, USDA pomological watercolor, research, restoration, giclee print
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