FORTY YEARS OFLANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE
BEING THE PROFESSIONAL PAPERS OF
FREDERICK LAW OLMSTED, SENIOR
Frederick Law Olmsted in 1850
FREDERICK LAW OLMSTED
LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT
1822-1903
EDITED BY
FREDERICK LAW OLMSTED, JR.
AND
THEODORA KIMBALL
★
EARLY YEARS AND EXPERIENCES
TOGETHER WITH BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES
ILLUSTRATED
G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS
NEW YORK AND LONDON
The Knickerbocker Press
1922
Copyright, 1922
by
Frederick Law Olmsted
Made in the United States of America
ON THE CENTENNIAL YEAR OF HIS BIRTH IS PUBLISHED THIS
FIRST VOLUME OF THE PROFESSIONAL PAPERS OF
FREDERICK LAW OLMSTED
[Pg vii]
PREFACE
The richness and variety of the professional papers left byFrederick Law Olmsted, Senior, is astonishing, especially inview of the enormous amount of work on the ground which heaccomplished in the almost forty years of his active career asa Landscape Architect. Orderly and thorough by habit ofthought, he wrote down with minute care the various steps ofhis professional dealings, in many cases retaining unuseddrafts which show valuable processes of mind. From thebeginning he realized fully the importance of presenting thenew profession to the public in a favorable light, and wasconstantly “coming before the public,”—as the phrase went,—inthe daily press and in occasional pamphlets. Several ofhis professional reports also were printed at his own expense,but a far greater number have lain buried in the files of ParkDepartment Documents or have never been printed in anyform. His personal life after 1857 was so closely bound upwith his professional activities that his family and friendlyletters reveal many sidelights on his work. The record of hisprofessional correspondence is fortunately full. When thepolitical harassments to which he was subjected preventedhim from sleeping, he used to while away the hours of thenight by writing, sometimes in regard to his current problemsand sometimes bits of general wisdom gained in his professionalexperience. About 1890 when he was obliged in somedegree to lessen his travelling about, he wrote several longretrospective letters, reviewing his career, and he left alsotwo or three short fragments of autobiography, which areincluded in this present volume.
Among the many people outside the Olmsted family whohad preserved and were able to return letters for editorialpurposes, there should be especially mentioned: the lateFrederick J. Kingsbury of Waterbury, Conn., wh