1875

Smith College students studying botany looked out from College Hall over the town of Northampton, but their back yard, the former Lyman and Dewey homesteads, was a mix of gardens, orchard, hayfields, and pastures, where one might catch a glimpse of Paradise Pond or President Seelye's milk cow.

1886

Lilly Hall of Science, the first science building at a women's college, becomes the home for plant sciences and the college herbarium.

1890

Botany is established as a separate and independent department, and at first botany was a required course for all first-year students.

As the campus expands with additional property through the 1880s, Smith College hires the Brookline firm of Olmsted, Olmsted and Eliot to develop a comprehensive landscape scheme. Frederick Law Olmsted, senior member of the firm, is best remembered for designing Central Park in New York City and the Boston park system. 

1891

Smith College Trustees, following President Seelye's recommendation, approve a plan to combine the beautifying of the college grounds with the development of a scientifically organized botanic garden, which would serve as an adjunct to the botany department.

1892

Planting begins to make the  campus a laboratory and classroom for the study of woody plants.

1893

The first greenhouse is constructed and herbaceous beds are laid out.

1894

The Botanic Garden takes shape under William Francis Ganong, appointed in May 1894 as professor of botany and director of the Botanic Garden (positions he held until his retirement in 1932), and Edward J. Canning, who was hired in summer 1894 as head gardener. Ganong envisions an integrated botanic garden with a greenhouse, adjacent herbaceous systematics garden, and the entire campus as an arboretum.

1895

The greenhouses are expanded with a gift from Edward H. R Lyman. The glass houses are built by Lord & Burnham.

1897

The first Rock Garden in North America is established, modeled on the Rock Garden at the Royal Botanic Garden at Kew in London.

Ganong and Canning rework the herbaceous beds as a systematics garden after the Engler-Prantl classification system.

Olmsted's plantings are revised to make the entire campus an arboretum.

1900

The first horticulture course is taught.

1909

The first landscape gardening course is offered.

1914

With increasing enrollments in the sciences, Burton Hall is constructed for the botany and zoology departments.

1919

Kate Ries Koch is appointed the first professor in landscape architecture.

Continue to History 1920-1960