US authorities hide from the people 7854 paintings with fruits and nuts

According to the law, a very valuable replenishment of the public domain should be a unique collection of Pomological Watercolor , which the American authorities kept for many years under lock and key, and then began to sell digital copies for $ 10 apiece.

The collection with works of 1886-1942 is a unique combination of artistic and scientific value. On the one hand, watercolor drawings themselves resemble works of art. On the other hand, it is a scientific work for cataloging fruits and nuts. In particular, it contains drawings of thousands of varieties of apples that have disappeared from the face of the earth .

Drawings were created in 1886-1942, but most date from 1894-1916. In addition to watercolors, there are lithographs and pencil drawings. The paintings come from 29 countries, from 51 states and the United States. The richest collection is the apple collection (3807 images).

The work belongs to the brush of approximately 21 artists who worked for the US Department of Agriculture. Actually, they now have a collection of originals. The ministry received a grant to digitize the collection from a nonprofit environmental fund. In theory, the authorities should have made digital copies publicly available. But they did the trick. Only low-resolution copies were publicly available, and the originals began to be sold.

Since 2011, when the collection appeared online, activists have been fightingfor releasing scanned originals. I managed to get the financial documentation of the ministry. It turned out that since 2011 it managed to sell 81 images on its website, earning an income of $ 565 (for some reason). At the same time, the cost of digitization was $ 288,442.

If the ministry hopes to recoup the project, then this is unlikely to succeed. At the same time, by law, paintings should be in the public domain. They can be excellent illustrative material for textbooks, scientific books, Wikipedia.

Some conscientious file purchasers voluntarily post open fruit drawings from the Pomological Watercolor collection.