From the Living Museum
Newtown Pippin
- Origin
- Newtown (now Elmhurst), Queens, New York, early 18th century
- Era
- Early 18th c.
- Type / use
- Dessert
From the ArchiveFilm
Watch its story
The Apple That Crossed the Ocean
A short narrated history of Newtown Pippin, told through the archive illustrations of our apple collection.
Illustrations: Elsie Lower Pomeroy (1910) and Ellen Isham Schutt (1910), USDA Pomological Watercolor Collection, National Agricultural Library (public domain). Narrated with a synthetic voice.
Watch on YouTubeHistory & Stories
Two main strains (Yellow Newtown and the Green Newtown / Albemarle Pippin). Firm, crisp, complex aromatic flesh and outstanding storage. The Albemarle Pippin strain was a favorite of both Thomas Jefferson and Queen Victoria. Unique for its early American origin, presidential and royal associations, and status as one of the great keeping dessert apples of the 18th and 19th centuries.
Folklore & Name
Named for Newtown (now Elmhurst), Queens, New York. Early 18th-century American classic. The Albemarle Pippin strain was favored by both Thomas Jefferson and Queen Victoria — rare dual presidential and royal endorsement.
Digging into the History
Below my own notes, here is what the old fruit books and today’s collections record about this apple, kept apart from the stories people tell.
What we know
Newtown Pippin is named for Newtown on Long Island, now part of Queens, New York. S.A. Beach's The Apples of New York (1905) reprints an account saying the original seedling "is alleged to have stood near a swamp on the estate of Gershom Moore" until about 1805, when it died "from excessive cutting of cions," and that its origin "is credited to the early part of the eighteenth century" 1. The UK National Fruit Collection agrees on the Moore estate and says it was well known by 1759 2.
It was, Beach writes, "the first American apple which attracted attention in Europe." Benjamin Franklin received specimens in London in 1759, and grafts were sent to England; by 1768 a London nursery was growing it as "Newtown Pippin of New York." In March 1773 Thomas Jefferson recorded grafting "Newtown Pippin" at Monticello 1. Monticello records that as many as fifty Albemarle (Newtown) Pippin trees were planted in its South Orchard 3. Since 1817 American growers have recognized a Yellow and a Green Newtown, though, as Beach notes, no one knows which type the original tree was 1.
The competing accounts
- Account reprinted by S.A. Beach, 1905 1: the original tree supposedly stood on Gershom Moore's estate at Newtown until it died about 1805; origin credited to the early 1700s.
- UK National Fruit Collection 2: also Gershom Moore's estate; well known by 1759, when Benjamin Franklin received fruit in London 1.
- Beach 1: since 1817 growers have known a Yellow and a Green Newtown, and nobody knows which the original tree was.
Most likely (our judgment, not a certainty): a seedling from the Moore estate at Newtown, Long Island, early in the 1700s. The two accounts agree, and the 1759 London record fixes a firm latest date.
What we think: stories & traditions
The Queen's apple (tradition). Monticello says that in the nineteenth century Queen Victoria liked the Virginia-grown fruit so much that she exempted Virginia apples from an import tax 3. It is a much-repeated story; we have not seen the original order, so we tell it as tradition.
Loved to death. The tale of the first tree being worn out by people cutting grafts from it 1 may be the best testimonial any apple ever had. Beach himself flags it as "alleged," so take it as a good story with a ring of truth.
Sources
- S.A. Beach, The Apples of New York, Vol. 1 (Albany: J.B. Lyon, 1905), "Green Newtown and Yellow Newtown," pp. 145–148. archive.org/details/applesofnewyork01beaciala/page/145
- UK National Fruit Collection, "Newtown Pippin." www.nationalfruitcollection.org.uk/full2.php?id=4228&fruit=apple
- Thomas Jefferson Foundation (Monticello), "Albemarle Pippin Apple." www.monticello.org/encyclopedia/albemarle-pippin-apple
Curious about Newtown Pippin?
Email us at drgoss@honeytreeorchard.com.