

Legislature on March 6, 1891, and became a law by the approval of 

 Governor Hill on April 28, 1891. This Act established a corporation 

 with the name "The New York Botanical Garden," "for the purpose of 

 establishing and maintaining a botanical garden and museum and 

 arboretum therein, for the collection and culture of plants, flowers, 

 shrubs and trees, the advancement of botanical science and knowledge, 

 and the prosecution of original researches therein and in kindred subjects, 

 for affording instruction in the same, for the prosecution and exhibition 

 of ornamental and decorative horticulture and gardening, and for the 

 entertainment, recreation and instruction of the people." The incor- 

 porators were Seth Low, Charles P. Daly, John S. Newberry, Charles 

 A. Dana, Addison Brown, Parke Godwin, Henry C. Potter, Charles 

 Butler, Hugh J. Grant, Edward Cooper, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Nathaniel 

 L. Britton, Morris K. Jesup, J. Pierpont Morgan, Andrew Carnegie, 

 Thomas F. Gilroy, Eugene Kelly, Jr., Richard T. Auchmuty, D. O. Mills, 

 Charles F. Chandler, Louis Fitzgerald, Theodore W. Myers, William C. 

 Schermerhorn, Oswald Ottendorfer, Albert Gallup, Timothy F. Allen, 

 Henry R. Hoyt, William G. Choate, William H. Draper, John S. Kennedy, 

 Jesse Seligman, William L. Brown, David Lydig, William E. Dodge, 

 James A. Scrymser, Samuel Sloan, William H. Robertson, Stephen P. 

 Nash, Richard W. Gilder, Thomas Hogg, Nelson Smith, Samuel W. 

 Fairchild, Robert Maclay, William H. S. Wood, George M. Olcut, Charles 

 F. Cox, James R. Pitcher, Percy R. Pyne. 



This Act of Incorporation authorized the Commissioners of Public 

 Parks to set apart 250 acres of Bronx Park, after a fund of not less than 

 $250,000 should be obtained by the incorporators by subscription. A 

 preliminary meeting of the incorporators was held on May 12, 1891, 

 in the parlors of the American Geographical Society, 11 West 29th 

 Street, for consultation as to organization and for the appointment 

 of a Finance Committee and a committee on Constitution, By-Laws and 

 Nominations, and another meeting was held on May 19, 1891, at the 

 residence of Mrs. Louis Fitzgerald, 253 Lexington Avenue, at which 

 time a committee of women was appointed to act with the incorporators, 

 consisting of Mrs. C. P. Daly, Mrs. Samuel Sloan, Mrs. Muhlenberg 

 Bailey, Miss Ann Livingston, Mrs. Harrison, Mrs. Morris K. Jesup, 

 Mrs. Seth Low, Mrs. Arthur Brooks, Mrs. William G. Choate, Mrs. 

 Winthrop Cowdin, Mrs. Prescott Hall Butler, Mrs. Edward Fiedler, 

 Mrs. Edward Lauterbach and Mrs. Joel Wolfe. Judge Addison Brown 

 made the first subscription of $25,000, which was followed on December 



