A world-renowned research institution and public garden established in 1859 by transplanted English gentleman Henry Shaw. The highly ornamental and instructive plantings, typically Victorian in character, were originally based on a tripartite organization of arboretum, fruticetum, and flower gardens, and were laid out by Shaw. Great conservatories and fanciful pavilions, including the Linnaean house (the oldest remaining display house in the United States), flanked the axis that linked the garden grounds with Shaw’s country residence, Tower Grove. After Shaw’s death in 1889, the grounds were rearranged to reflect a more popular naturalistic aesthetic. Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. and John Charles Olmsted submitted a master plan in 1896. Though little of this plan was built, the area known as the North American Tract does come from this.
 
In 1913, John Noyes was hired as an instructor at the Shaw School of Botany. A former colleague of both Jens Jensen and Warren H. Manning, Noyes oversaw the addition of the Palm, Desert, Mediterranean, and Floral Display Houses, the Italian and Perennial Gardens, the Knolls, and a number of other features. Noyes created st Louis’s first rose garden with rare specimens garnered from Dr. Sargent of Arnold Arboretum. Layton, Layton, and Rohrbach developed a new master plan in 1960, re-establishing the original north-south axis. The 79-acre National Historic Landmark (1971) is known for the Climatron conservatory (1960), a geodesic dome based on the principles of R. Buckminster Fuller, and for the 14-acre Japanese Garden, Seiwa-En, designed by Koichi Kawana of University of California-Los Angeles (1977). Since 1971, Director Peter Raven has overseen guidance of the institution, successfully continuing Shaw’s mandate of research, display, and education.