Chicago's Botanic Garden: Translating Horticulture into Community Action

Abstract

In 1972 when the Chicago Botanic Garden opened to the public, it introduced the nation’s “second city” to its new botanic garden. Just one of a proliferation of new museums in the second half of the twentieth century, the botanic garden would become a national leader of in community work as museums and public gardens focused on local community engagement. From its inception, CBG aspired to join the most well-established botanic gardens in the United States. This dissertation documents the financial, social, and personal influences that shaped programs that were innovative and effective. As the Chicago Botanic Garden developed, its leaders strove to meet the tripartite goals of the field—scientific inquiry, education, and landscape cultivation. They proved to be particularly successful in the area of education and, specifically, community horticulture. Encompassing programs like horticultural therapy, community gardening, and environmental and science education in local schools, community horticulture programs became centers of expertise at the garden. Given CBG’s origin in the Chicago Horticultural Society, staff and board members at the botanic garden already had a vested interest in ongoing programs in the field, and this led them to concentrate resources there, often at the expense of research development. Dedicated leadership at the executive level succeeded in creating a striking physical landscape, even as they balanced the goal of reaching central areas of the city of Chicago. The public, private foundations, and governmental funders demanded increased relevance and accountability. As a suburban garden funded in large part by urban tax revenue and a young museum without an established scientific reputation or broad philanthropic base, garden leaders and staff worked hard to meet sponsors’ expectations. Ultimately, CBG did provide an impressive number of widely recognized programs by the end of the century. In significant ways its community horticulture accomplishments relied on the expertise of long-tenured employees who built an environmentally just community infrastructure through personal relationships and strategic funding strategies.