Collections & Research
Archives of American Gardens
The Archives of American Gardens (AAG) offers landscape designers, historians, researchers, and garden enthusiasts access to a collection of over 60,000 photographic images and records documenting historic and contemporary American gardens.
Smithsonian Orchid Collection
Smithsonian Gardens strives to cultivate an extremely diverse array of orchids from all over the world. With close to 8,000 plants in the collection, new acquisitions are selected carefully each year based on their display quality, educational value, beauty, rarity and how they complement the present collection.
Garden Furnishings and Horticultural Artifacts
Hundreds of pieces are exhibited in the Smithsonian gardens and interior plant displays in the Smithsonian museums surrounding the National Mall in Washington, D.C.
Frances Jones Poetker Collection
The Frances Jones Poetker Collection includes over 250 bouquet holders as well as a handful of boutonnières and brooches.
Garden History Timeline
Investigate the history of the American garden and its transformation from the mid 1500s to the present. This timeline covers the development of public gardens, private estates, national preservations, botanical institutes, and the American wilderness. For additional information explore the collection of the Smithsonian Gardens' Archives of American Gardens.