Othniel Charles Marsh's 1899 bequest of his estate and plant collections created the Marsh Botanical Garden at 265 Mansfield Street, where you are now. This living legacy began in 1899 when paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh, an 1860 Yale College graduate, bequeathed his estate and plant collections to the university. In the 1920s and 1930s the garden was shaped by landscape architect Beatrix Farrand as part of her design for the Yale campus; today only remnants of Farrand's design remain, though restoration work has begun.
Walk gently and you'll feel that the place still serves its dual purpose: it supports research and instruction and invites the public into a green space on campus. The greenhouses here are noteworthy - inside you'll find collections of cacti, insectivores, and orchids that speak to the garden's scientific mission. A line of stewards has cared for this place over the decades, from George Elwood Nichols (1926-1939) and Edmund Ware Sinnott (1940-1950) to Steven Handel (1979-1985), Mary Helen Goldsmith (1985-2002), Timothy Nelson (2002-2015), Michael Donoghue (2015-2018), and Erika Edwards (2018-present).
Notice the cacti, insectivores, and orchids inside the greenhouses, tended today by Erika Edwards, the latest in a long line of stewards since Beatrix Farrand's 1920s design.