New York Botanical Garden

In 1888, prominent American botanists Nathaniel Lord Britton and Elizabeth Gertrude Britton visited the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in Britain. Inspired to create a similar institution in New York, the Brittons returned to America and, in 1891, opened the New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) in Bronx Park. The Brittons envisioned a garden that would advance public knowledge of plants, spearhead cutting-edge botanical research, and conserve some of the planet's rarest species.
 
Today, the 250 acre NYBG continues to actualize that three-pronged vision. Designated a National Historic Landmark, the Garden is home to more than one million plants across 50 specialty gardens and collections. Each year, more than one million visitors experience the NYBG's beautiful grounds and participate in innovative programming. Further, the NYBG is deeply committed to advancing knowledge about the world's plants to best protect and preserve them. With the largest botanical and horticultural library in the Western Hemisphere, the second largest herbarium in the world, and one of only two freestanding botanical garden plant and fungal research centers on the planet, the NYBG comprises one of the most comprehensive plant research institutions in existence.
 
Located in the Garden is the Enid Annenberg Haupt Conservatory, a greenhouse named after Ambassador Walter H. Annenberg's sister and Gregory Annenberg Weingarten's great aunt.  Originally constructed at the turn of the 20th Century, the Conservatory fell into disrepair in the 1970s. However, Ms. Haupt, an avid horticulture enthusiast and philanthropic supporter, decided to save the structure with a generous donation to repair and endow its renovation and operation. Today, the Conservatory is a vital hub for the Garden and is designated a New York City landmark.