As showcases for dramatic changes in garden style and new technology, world's fairs offered leading landscape designers and nurserymen the chance to tempt visitors to try new garden trends in backyards across the nation. From horticultural innovations to new landscape styles, the wonders displayed at these fairs had a distinct influence on America's largest urban parks.

In World's Fair Gardens, Cathy Jean Maloney offers a lavishly illustrated exploration of the gardens and grounds of America's nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century world's fairs. Maloney describes the landscapes of...

Formed in 1890, during the heady days before the 1893 World s Columbian Exposition, the Chicago Horticultural Society boasted members with names deeply rooted in Chicago history: Buckingham, McCormick, and Palmer, among others. Today, as it leads the Garden in a model public-private partnership with the Forest Preserves of Cook County, the Society s horticultural practices have exceeded the vision of its founders.

"Chicago and Its Botanic Garden: The Chicago Horticultural Society at 125 "is a lushly illustrated and thoughtful history of the Society and its evolution from a producer of...