From Matt Stein (whose post I found thanks to Naz Hamid): USDA Pomological Watercolors.

In 1887 the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Division of Pomology began hiring artists to render illustrations of fruit varieties for lithographic reproduction in USDA articles, reports, and bulletins. Use of color lithography was critically important to enable the farmer to visualize and comprehend the subjects and principles covered in a particular publication. As a historic botanical resource, this collection documents new fruit and nut varieties, and specimens introduced by USDA plant explorers from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The work is beautiful. Just look at these details.

I love stuff like this. Just like I love the amazing achievements of NASA, or the Library of Congress, or any of these other vast, grand, publicly funded endeavors that exist because they should. Not because they make one crummy person richer, but because they make everyone richer.