Chicago Botanic Garden

Overview

The Chicago Botanic Garden is a 385-acre living museum in Glencoe, Illinois, built across nine islands and operated by the Chicago Horticultural Society. It houses a collection of more than 2.6 million plants across 27 specialty gardens and four natural areas — woodlands, wetlands, lakes, and prairies — and is free to the public, open 365 days a year. The Garden's stated mission is to cultivate the power of plants to sustain and enrich life, welcoming more than 1.2 million visits and engaging more than 130,000 education participants annually.

Public gardens and visitor programs

Notable garden spaces include the Elizabeth Hubert Malott Japanese Garden (Sansho-En), originally designed by Dr. Koichi Kawana and dedicated in 1982, and the Helen and Richard Thomas English Walled Garden, designed by British landscape designer John Brookes and dedicated in 1991. The Regenstein Center, designed by Edward Larrabee Barnes and opened in 1976, anchors the Garden's education programming, alongside the Regenstein Learning Campus, which opened in 2016. Visitor offerings include tram tours, seasonal exhibitions, outdoor concerts, and horticultural workshops through the School of the Chicago Botanic Garden. The Garden also operates Windy City Harvest, a national model for urban agriculture with a dozen locations across Chicago, including its flagship Farm on Ogden in North Lawndale, focused on workforce development and access to locally grown produce.

Science and conservation research

Plant science and conservation research is based at the Negaunee Institute for Plant Conservation Science, housed in the Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice Plant Conservation Science Center, where scientists and graduate students conduct research on plant conservation and environmental restoration. The Garden's Lenhardt Library maintains a rare book collection of national prominence, and the Archives of the Chicago Horticultural Society, housed within the library, holds roughly 250 linear feet of institutional records dating back to the Society's founding. The Garden has been accredited by the American Alliance of Museums, which in its 2023 reaccreditation report described it as an excellent museum, a world-class botanic garden, and a clear leader in its industry.

History

The Garden's parent organization, the Chicago Horticultural Society, was founded in 1890 to help beautify Chicago for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, adopting the city's motto Urbs in Horto ("city in a garden"). The Society hosted early flower and chrysanthemum shows, including one at the newly opened Art Institute of Chicago in 1893, before a period of inactivity during World War I and the Depression. Victory gardens during World War II revived the Society's mission, and it formally reorganized in 1945. In 1962, the Society agreed to help create and manage a new public garden, leading to a groundbreaking in 1965 on land owned by the Forest Preserve District of Cook County; the Chicago Botanic Garden opened to the public in 1972 as the Society's permanent home for collections, education, and research. The Garden marked its 50th anniversary in 2022 with the Flourish exhibition and is due to celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2072.

Funding and governance

The Chicago Botanic Garden is a public-private partnership: the land is owned by the Forest Preserves of Cook County, while the Garden itself is operated by the nonprofit Chicago Horticultural Society (EIN 36-2225482). Forest Preserve District tax support historically provides roughly one-third of the Garden's annual operating budget, with the remaining two-thirds coming from membership, earned revenue, grants, and private donations; capital investment for new gardens and facilities has come overwhelmingly from private donors.

Leadership

Gretchen E. Baker became President and CEO of the Chicago Botanic Garden effective March 16, 2026, succeeding Jean M. Franczyk, who had led the Garden since 2016 and retired that month. Baker joined from the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, where she had served as director since 2021, and previously held roles at the Natural History Museums of Los Angeles County and the Field Museum in Chicago. Michael R. Zimmerman serves as Chair of the Garden's Board of Directors.

Location and contact info

Address
1000 Lake Cook Road
Glencoe, IL 60022
Phone
(847) 835-5440
Email
plantinfo@chicagobotanic.org
Website
https://www.chicagobotanic.org