The Botanic Garden of Smith College

Northampton, Massachusetts, United States

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The Botanic Garden of Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, was founded in 1895 with a vision from the college’s first president, Laurenus Clarke Seelye, who saw the entire campus as a scientific and aesthetic botanical garden.

Designed initially by the landscape architecture firm Olmsted, Olmsted & Eliot, the garden includes a 12,000 square-foot Victorian-style Lyman Conservatory, which houses over 3,000 species of tropical, subtropical, and desert plants. It also features a systematics garden showing plant classifications, a rock garden inspired by the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, and an extensive arboretum integrated into the campus landscape.

The garden has long been a center for teaching, research, and public education in the plant sciences, with horticulture classes offered since 1900. The Botanic Garden continues to expand and thrive, maintaining strong academic ties and community engagement while hosting seasonal flower shows and sustaining a commitment to environmental education and plant diversity.​