Lincoln Park Conservatory
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 Location within Chicago
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| Established | 1877; in present location since 1893 |
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| Location | 2391 North Stockton Drive, Chicago, Illinois, USA 60614 |
| Coordinates | 41°55′26″N 87°38′07″W / 41.9240°N 87.6353°WCoordinates: 41°55′26″N 87°38′07″W / 41.9240°N 87.6353°W |
| Director | Mary Eysenbach |
| Website | Lincoln Park Conservatory |
Positioned near the shore of Lake Michigan, the Lincoln Park Conservatory (1.2 ha / 3 acres) is a conservatory and botanical garden in Lincoln Park in Chicago, Illinois. The conservatory is located at 2391 North Stockton Drive just south of Fullerton Avenue, west of Lake Shore Drive, and part of the Lincoln Park, Chicago community area. The Alfred Caldwell Lily Pool and the North Pond Nature Sanctuary are further to the north along Stockton Drive. Along with the Garfield Park Conservatory on Chicago's west side, the Lincoln Park Conservatory provides significant horticultural collections, educational programs and community outreach efforts.
Lincoln Park Conservatory is a Victorian Era glass house, built in late nineteenth century. It contains four rooms displaying exotic plants from around the world. Rare orchids, like the Moth orchid, can be found in the Orchid room.
A formal garden is situated in front of the Conservatory; one of the oldest public gardens in Chicago, designed and planted in the late 1870s. Since its foundation, the formal garden has been the home of many sculptors and works of art. The most famous are the Bates fountains, the Schiller monument, and the Shakespeare monument. The formal garden is planted between May and June. Though the peak viewing time is between July and August, the display lasts till mid-October.
Conservatories were originally benevolent establishments attached to hospitals or other charitable or religious institutions. They provided plants and organisms for medicinal use and research.
In the early nineteenth century, the development of iron and glass building technology led to the constructions of conservatories in major cities in the United States as well as other countries in the world. Chicago had become overcrowded as its population had increased rapidly. With a growing concern about the ill effect of industrialization, interest in collecting and classifying plant life became very popular. The city leaders decided to build a new and more substantial conservatory to replace a small greenhouse built in the 1870s. Architects Joseph Lyman Silsbee and M.E. Bell designed and built an exotic-style glass conservatory which was described as “a paradise under glass". Originally, the aquatic plants were placed in a heated pond outside. They were later moved into tanks inside the conservatory. The Conservatory's exotic plans were so popular that in 1897, the Egyptian government asked the Conservatory for seeds of water lilies flowers.
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