An Illustrated Catalog of American Mushrooms: US Department of Agriculture Maurice B. Walters Collection

Before digital photography and field guide standardization, documenting mushrooms required persistence, focus, and a deep trust in the power of close observation. Maurice B. Walters (1891-1979), an amateur mycologist, left behind a collection of hand-colored photographs that reflects a lifetime of such work. Preserved by the USDA’s National Fungus Collections, these images form the foundation of this volume.

Across more than 300 pages, the book presents 200 color photographs of fungi found throughout the United States. Walters had little public profile, and few personal records remain, but he was known to professional researchers of his time, and his photographic contributions were valued for their clarity and consistency.

While the written descriptions that originally accompanied the images are not reproduced here, the photographs themselves offer a clear sense of how meticulous field documentation helped shape the early scientific record. The USDA’s evolving efforts to catalog the country’s fungal diversity—over 10,000 named species—provide a larger institutional backdrop for Walters’s individual efforts.

This is not a field guide or a manual for identification. It’s a visual record of one person’s sustained attention to the natural world and a quiet testament to the role that focused, self-directed work can play in expanding collective knowledge.

Hardcover. Color photographs throughout.