GROWING GARDENS: BOTANICAL GARDENS, PUBLIC SPACE AND CONSERVATION

This thesis examines the history of botanical gardens and their evolution from ancient spaces to the modern gardens of the 20th century. I provide a brief overview of botanical gardens, with a focus on the unique intersection of public participation and scientific study that started to occur within garden spaces during the 20th century, which still continues today. I reveal the history of gardens that influenced the uses of gardens today, with a focus on: the first ancient gardens and the dependency societies had on them, the influence of science in gardens starting in the Enlightenment period, the shift away from scientific gardens and the introductions of public gardens in the early 20th century, and the reintroduction of science into gardens during the conservation movement of the 1950s.