s Americans migrated westward to the deep and level topsoil of the Midwest, so did apples. The apples illustrated in this portfolio from the Amana Society are all named varieties, indicating their grafted status. When German Inspirationists founded the communal settlement of Amana in 1855, they brought grafting wood with them, probably from their earlier settlement outside Buffalo, New York.

Joseph Prestele (1796-1867), a Bavarian botanical illustrator and lithographer who was a member of the Amana community, produced the plates. Assisted by his son Gottlieb, he created hundreds of plates illustrating the fruits and vegetables for sale by the nurserymen of the Community. Virtually unknown as an artist for over a hundred years, Prestele has recently been recognized as one of the foremost practitioners of American botanical illustration in the nineteenth century.