SKU: 030374
Carol Grove chronicles Henry Shaw’s remarkable story, from his early love of plants to his rising social conscience and his determined quest to create a place of beauty and distinction that would educate and thereby improve American citizens. At the age of eighteen, Henry Shaw (1800-1889) left his home in Sheffield, England, to import manufactured goods from St. Louis on the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers. Two decades of financial success allowed him to relinquish his business operations and take up more genteel pursuits. In 1840, he began nearly ten years of travel, which exposed him to museums and botanical gardens in Europe, Asia Minor, and Russia. He also visited Chatsworth where he saw Joseph Paxton’s arboretum and the duke of Devonshire’s world-class botanical collection.
Over the next three decades, Shaw transformed his estate, Tower Grove, into one of the nation’s leading botanical gardens. Laid out according to gardenesque principles, which emphasized individual specimens, the plantings came from many sources and included species newly discovered by the era’s great plant hunters. Shaw’s Garden opened in 1859 to legions of wildly enthusiastic visitors.
In 1867, Shaw began work on Tower Grove Park, a stretch of 276 acres next to the garden. Shaw again chose to design with a gardenesque method. In keeping with his educational mission, he carefully labeled all of the trees. He also ornamented the landscape with Oriental-inspired pavilions and summerhouses.
Beautifully illustrated with contemporary and historical photographs, this book offers an insightful cultural history of Shaw’s landscapes, among the most important examples of gardenesque in America.
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