I Spy With My Little Eye: Mr. Shaw's Gift to the World

On May 3, 1819, Henry Shaw, a young upper class Englishman, landed in the small town of St. Louis, Missouri, with a large shipment of hardware products. He was only eighteen years old at the time but he soon started a hardware business and became one of the wealthiest men in St. Louis. He was the owner of a huge estate and became a famous botanist and collector after he retired at age 40.

After his death in 1889, his estate, known as "Shaw's Garden", was set aside as a botanical garden, along with Tower Grove Park, for the enjoyment of the people of St. Louis. Shaw was a man of his age and a shrewd businessman. He never married but that is another story. He also was a slave-owner but that was not unusual in pre-Civil War St. Louis...and that, also, is another story.

Shaw's Garden (as it is still known by most locals) became Missouri Botanical Gardens and is one of the leading botanical gardens and research institutions in the world.

The Italianate-style Tower Grove House was Shaw's country home and the center of his large estate. Today it is a house museum surrounded by herbal and Victorian-style gardens. Shaw is buried in a granite mausoleum in a grove of trees nearby.

Shaw spent his retirement years pursuing his love of botany. Being extremely wealthy, he was able to collect living plants from all over the world. He also collected botanical specimens, books and plant material and had to build a museum and library to house his collections. The library was built in 1858. It recently underwent renovation and is still in use as a library.

Shaw had a special greenhouse - his orangry - built in 1882. This is now the Linnean House, probably the oldest continually operated greenhouse west of the Mississippi River. Today it houses various types of cactus and dry climate plants from around the world.