Harvard University. Botanic Garden

Organization

Biography

In March 1805, a group of prominent Massachusetts citizens endowed a Botanic Garden at Harvard University to promote commerce, agriculture, medicine, and the arts through the study of zoology, botany, and mineralogy. The Garden was officially opened in 1807. The site was developed into a center for research and instruction which housed a herbarium, laboratories, an auditorium, and a library. Due to the cost of this endeavor, research and instruction at the Garden was discontinued by the 1940s and the Garden itself became overgrown. In 1947, the City of Cambridge attempted to claim the site by eminent domain, which prompted Harvard to build the Botanic Garden Apartment complex on the site.

Found in 1 Collection or Record:

Harvard Botanic Garden records

FOUND IN: Botany Libraries, Gray Herbarium Library, Harvard University

Collection Identifier: gra00082

Scope and content:

This collection includes correspondence, financial records, policies, plant information, publications (mostly photocopies of newspaper articles), timelines, and plans related to the Harvard Botanic Garden. The materials are dated from 1784-1987 and only cover a small portion of the history of the Botanic Garden.