OLMSTED, Frederick Law [1822-1903] -- American landscape architect

Relationship to me: 5C6
OLMSTEAD family Outline Descent Tree(s) ODT

Contents:

Chronology
Bookmarks (off-site links)
Footnotes
Page services

He is generally considered to have invented the profession. Prior to taking up landscape design, Olmsted traveled throughout the antebellum South, writing on conditions there, especially as relating to the institution of slavery.

He was responsible for a large number of park designs, both public and private, either alone or in collaboration with other architects, notably Calvert Vaux. Works include Manhattan's Central Park, the Ashville, NC, Biltmore estate of George Washington Vanderbilt, and Downing Park of Newburgh, NY.

F.L.O. and Andrew Jackson Downing

The park at Newburgh was dedicated to his friend and mentor, Andrew Jackson Downing, who had tragically died at an early age. Downing's work had a profound influence on Olmsted, and it was he who introduced him to Calvert Vaux, who was to become his partner in the New York Central Park project -- which Downing had proposed some years earlier -- and numerous other projects. Olmsted wrote numerous articles for Downing's magazine, The Horticulturalist.

Chronology

Selected works by FLO alone or in collaboration, or by his firm.

1858-1876	Central Park, NYC¹
1865	Campus of UC Berkeley¹
1865-1867	San Francisco Public Grounds
1865-1895	NYC Prospect Park¹
1865-1899	Washington Univ., St. Louis, MO³
1866	Columbia Institute for the Deaf and Dumb (now Gallaudet Univ.) Washington, DC¹
1867-1873	Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY¹
1870-1872	Tarrytown Heights residential community, NY¹
1870-1920	Downing Park, Newburgh, NY¹
1872-1894	Trinity College, Hartford
1874-1881	Yale Univ., New Haven
1875-1894	US Capitol grounds, Washington, DC
1880s	First scientifically managed forest in U.S. (Biltmore)
1881-1895	Belle Isle, Detroit, MI
1883-1901	Lawrenceville School, Lawrenceville, NJ
1886-1914	Stanford Univ., Palo Alto, CA²
1888-1893	World Columbian Exposition, Chicago, IL²
1890-1906	National Zoological Park, Washington, DC²
1891-1909	Smith College, Northampton, MA²
1891-1909	Biltmore Estate, Asheville, NC²
1895-1927	Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, PA³
1896-1922	Mt Holyoke College, So. Hadley, MA³
1896-1932	Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY³
1898/09	First school of forestry (Biltmore)
1900-1906	Brown Univ., Providence, RI³
1901-1910	Univ. of Chicago, Chicago, IL³
1902-1912	Williams College, Williamstown, MA³
1902-1920	Univ. of Washington, Seattle, WA³
1903	Lewis and Clark Exposition, Portland, OR³
1903-1919	Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD³
1925-1931	Harvard Business School, Cambridge, MA³
1925-1965	Duke University, Durham, NC³
1929-1932	University of Notre Dame, So. Bend, IN³

Bookmarks (off-site links)

Vivísimo - Clustered search on frederick law olmsted
General
- Landscape Architecture
  - American Landscape and Architectural Design, 1850-1920 (American Memory, Library of Congress) The Library of Congress pages
  - Money - Landscape Architect
  - The New York Review of Books: Partner in the Park A review. Vaux was Olmsted's longtime partner.
  - Birkenhead Park Designed by Sir Joseph Paxton, opened 1847, visited several times by Olmsted, influenced the design of New York's Central Park
  - SAH image exchange pilot a set of images meant for teaching architectural history
Biographical
- Olmstead ARCHIVE
- Olmsted, Frederick Law on Encyclopedia.com 2002
- Frederic Law Olmstead by Mrs. Schuyler van Rensselaer: pp. 860-868; In: The Century; a popular quarterly. / Volume 46, Issue 6; Publisher: The Century Company; Publication Date: Oct 1893
- Horticulturists of Note--Frederick Olmsted By Dr. Leonard Perry, Extension Professor,
- Specific periods, events, etc
  - Frederick Law Olmsted in the Yosemite Valley
Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. Also a talented architect
- Frederick Law Olmstead, Jr. ARCHIVE
- Boulder was Established in 1859 as a mining town
- A Modern Arcadia Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. and the Plan for Forest Hills Gardens
Works
- Landscape Architecture
  - *** Frederic Law Olmsted *** The amazing Library of Congress online collection of over 500 lantern slides of F.L.O. works. Use the search to find specific items: e.g. "downing"
  - Natural Landscapes in Urban Areas This paper examines the presence of natural landscapes within cities. These landscapes will be addressed through two themes: urban waterfronts and urban parks.
  - Biltmore Estate Why it's relevant: It shows the results--on a grand scale--of the importance of a great builder/architect collaboration.
  - Biltmore Estate The spectacular estate of George Vanderbilt, in Asheville, NC -- America's largest home.
  - NCUSFS-Pisgah District-Biltmore Campus Trail Originally Biltmore Forest, it is the site of the first forestry school in America.
  - Great campuses designed by Frederick Law Olmstead or his partners Including Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY. Don't miss the link to the complete list under "More About Olmsted's Schools".
  - LA Theses Database - Carson, Scott A./ 1993 May
  - Portland Trails Under the direction of then-mayor James Phinney
  - Frederick Law Olmstead andTacoma
  - Architect of the Capitol Web Site The history, architecture, and function of the building that houses the United States Congress. Maintained by the Architect of the Capitol, this accessible and well-organized site provides detailed information on this historic building's architectural features, Frederick Law Olmsted's landmark Capitol grounds, and its notable art collection. [Lii]
  - Old Louisville History: 1901 Plan of Central Park by Frederick Law Olmstead
  - Boston and vicinity
    - Frederick Law Olmsted: Boston's Emerald Necklace From the Library of Congress
    - Boston's Emerald Necklace
    - neighborhoods.net: Outdoors in eastern Massachuetts McLean Hospital grounds
    - Frederick Law Olmstead - His Influence on Worcester's Park System Includes a short biography and a summary of his works. [ARCHIVE]
    - Rogers Fort Hill Park Project Lowell, MA
    - Franklin Park Zoo - A part of Zoo New England Crown Jewel of Boston's Emerald Necklace
    - World's End Hingham, MA [ARCHIVE]
  - Chicago and vicinity
    - World's Columbian Exposition : Paul V. Galvin Digital History Collection Olmsted designed the grounds. The segment called the "Midway Plaisance" was such a success that midway came to denote any area of a carnival or circus devoted to sideshows.
    - Graceland Cemetery Chicago, IL
    - Paul Cornell Cornell hired Olmsted to design Washington and Jackson parks in Chicago
  - New York State
    - New York City & vicinity
      - Central Park Web Site
      - New York-Central Park
      - CarFreeLoop.org Central Park the way Frederick Law Olmsted intended
      - MTR 169, Brooklyn Reps Call for Car Free Prospect Park Another move to restore a park to Olmsted's original plan
      - Jackson's Veto & Wall Street Political ramifications of building Central Park
      - Bayard Cutting Arboretum Oakdale, Suffolk Co., NY (on Long Island)
    - Downing Park Newburgh, Orange Co. NY
    - Hudson River State Hospital (Historic Asylums) [archive]
    - Maplewood Rose Garden Rochester, NY
- Writings
  - Antebellum period
    - A journey in the Seaboard States (1856)
    - A TABACCO PLANTATION IN VIRGINIA ARCHIVE
    - A pious slave. ARCHIVE
    - Do you dance in your country? ARCHIVE
  - Yosemite and Mariposa
    - Yosemite History: Frederick Law Olmsted, Landscape Architect
Monuments, memorials, dedications, etc.
- Internet Obituary Network, Obituary for Frederick Law Olmsted Obituary
- Information about U.S. FDC: 33¢ Frederick Law Olmsted First Day of Issue: September 12, 1999
- Frederick Law Olmsted NHS Home Page
- Park Museum Collection Profiles (NPS)
- NGA - Frederick Law Olmsted/U.S.A. (1822-1903) (10/1972)
- Find A Grave
Bibliography, link farms, etc
- A Clearing in the Distance: Frederick Law Olmsted and America In the Nineteenth Century The dustcover blurb. [A good read; I recommend it. -R.]
- Biography A review, with an extensive collection of web links
- Amazon.com: Amazon.com / Frederick Law Olmsted Books by or about F.L.O.
- Frederick Law Olmsted, founder of landscape architechture
- Frederick Law Olmsted
Search engines
Gallery
- New York Architecture Images- Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux
- frederick law olmsted - Google Image Search

Bookmarks:2006-01-31 23:17:50

Footnotes

¹	With Calvert Vaux
²	FLO with his stepson John Charles Olmsted and, until 1893, Henry Sargent Codman
³	Charles Eliot and Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. Also with John Charles Olmsted until 1920

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