It is one of St. Louis’ most historically significant buildings.
And one of its most forgotten.
But after more than a century of decline, Henry Shaw’s museum is once again the Missouri Botanical Garden’s gallery, thanks to a multi-million-dollar restoration that was filled with challenges no one anticipated, and discoveries of treasures no one knew existed.
Documentary filmmaker Paul Schankman spent 18 months following the museum’s remarkable rebirth, “A New Leaf: Reimagining Henry Shaw’s Museum” tells two stories; one, about the painstaking effort to bring Shaw’s museum back to its original glory; and the other, how the building reveals the history of the garden itself, as it grew to become one of the finest in the world.