Britton's Botanical Empire. Mem (94)

In the 1890s botanist Nathaniel Lord Britton united New York City's private Gilded Age wealth with the expertise of its increasingly well-respected scientific community in order to realize his vision of a world-class botanical research institution situated within the landscaped confines of a newly annexed Bronx park. The resulting New York Botanical Garden became a decidedly American place for the practice of New World botany. Britton's success in establishing the Botanical Garden illustrates the ways in which taxonomic botany remained a priority among scientific endeavors into the twentieth century and beyond. Today, the Garden ranks among the most important institutions, both for New York City and the botanical world.