Frederick Law Olmsted

Frederick Law Olmsted Sr.
Born	April 26, 1822(1822-04-26)[1] Hartford, Connecticut
Died	August 28, 1903(1903-08-28) (aged 81) Belmont, Massachusetts
Occupation	landscape architect, journalist
Spouse	Mary Olmsted
Children	A daughter and Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr.
Parents	John and Charlotte Olmsted
Signature

Frederick Law Olmsted (April 26, 1822 – August 28, 1903) was an American journalist, social critic, public administrator, and landscape designer. He is popularly considered to be the father of American landscape architecture, although many scholars have bestowed that title upon Andrew Jackson Downing. Olmsted was famous for co-designing many well-known urban parks with his senior partner Calvert Vaux, including Central Park and Prospect Park in New York City.^[2]

Other projects that Olmsted has been involved in include the country's first and oldest coordinated system of public parks and parkways in Buffalo, New York; the country's oldest state park, the Niagara Reservation in Niagara Falls, New York; one of the first planned communities in the United States, Riverside, Illinois; Mount Royal Park in Montreal, Quebec; the Emerald Necklace in Boston, Massachusetts; also the Emerald Necklace of parks in Rochester, New York; Deering Oaks Park in Portland, Maine; the Belle Isle Park, in the Detroit River for Detroit, Michigan; the Presque Isle Park in Marquette, Michigan; the Grand Necklace of Parks in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; the Cherokee Park and entire parks and parkway system in Louisville, Kentucky; Springfield, Massachusetts' 735-acre Forest Park, featuring America's first public "wading pool" ^[3]; the George Washington Vanderbilt II Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina; the master plans for the University of California, Berkeley and Stanford University near Palo Alto, California; and the Montebello Park in St. Catharines, Ontario. In Chicago his projects include: Marquette Park; Jackson Park; Washington Park; the Midway Plaisance for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition; the south portion of Chicago's "'emerald necklace'" boulevard ring; Cadwalader Park in Trenton, New Jersey; and the University of Chicago campus. In Washington, D.C. he worked on the landscape surrounding the United States Capitol building. One of his lesser known works is Point Chautauqua. Olmsted was hired by the Baptist Church to develop a residential community that blended in seamlessly with the natural world around it.

Biography

Early life and education

Olmsted was born in Hartford, Connecticut, on April 26, 1822. His father, John Olmsted, was a prosperous merchant who took a lively interest in nature, people, and places; Frederick Law and his younger brother, John Hull, also showed this interest. His mother, Charlotte Law (Hull) Olmsted, died when he was scarcely four years old. His father remarried in 1827 to Mary Ann Bull, who shared her husband's strong love of nature and had perhaps a more cultivated taste.

When the young Olmsted was almost ready to enter Yale College, as a graduate of Phillips Academy in 1838, sumac poisoning weakened his eyes so he gave up college plans. After working as a seaman, merchant, and journalist, Olmsted settled on a farm in January 1848 on the south shore of Staten Island which his father helped him acquire. This farm, originally named the Akerly Homestead, was renamed Tosomock Farm by Olmsted. It was later renamed "The Woods of Arden" by owner Erastus Wiman. (The house in which Olmsted lived still stands at 4515 Hylan Blvd, near Woods of Arden Road.)

Marriage and family

On June 13, 1859, Olmsted married Mary Cleveland (Perkins) Olmsted, the widow of his brother John (who had died in 1857). He adopted her three sons (his nephews), among them John Charles Olmsted. Frederick and Mary had two children together who survived infancy: a daughter and a son Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr.

Career

Olmsted had a significant career in journalism. In 1850, he traveled to England to visit public gardens, where he was greatly impressed by Joseph Paxton's Birkenhead Park. He subsequently wrote and published Walks and Talks of an American Farmer in England in 1852. This supported his getting additional work.

Interested in the slave economy, he was commissioned by the New York Daily Times (now The New York Times) to embark on an extensive research journey through the American South and Texas from 1852 to 1857. From the Texas trip, Olmsted wrote his narrative account published as A Journey Through Texas (1857). It was recognized as the work of an astute observer of the land and lifestyles of Texas. Olmsted believed that slavery was not only morally odious, but expensive and economically inefficient.^{[citation needed]}

His dispatches to the Times were collected into multiple volumes which remain vivid first-person social documents of the pre-war South. The last of these, Journeys and Explorations in the Cotton Kingdom (1861), was published during the first six months of the American Civil War. It helped inform and galvanize antislavery sentiment in the Northeast. These three volumes were later condensed and edited as a single volume.^[4][5]

In 1865, Olmsted cofounded the magazine The Nation.

New York City's Central Park

View of Willowdell Arch with the team that created Central Park. Standing on the pathway over the span, from Right: Frederick Law Olmsted, Jacob Wrey Mould, Ignaz Anton Pilat, Calvert Vaux, George Waring, and Andrew Haswell Green. Photographed in 1862.

Andrew Jackson Downing, the charismatic landscape architect from Newburgh, New York, was one of the first who proposed the development of New York's Central Park in his role as publisher of The Horticulturist magazine. A friend and mentor to Olmsted, Downing introduced him to the English-born architect Calvert Vaux. Downing had brought Vaux from England as his architect collaborator. After Downing died in July 1852, in a widely publicized steamboat explosion on the Hudson River, Olmsted and Vaux entered the Central Park design competition together, against Egbert Ludovicus Viele among others. Vaux had invited the less experienced Olmsted to participate in the design competition with him, having been impressed with Olmsted's theories and political contacts. Prior to this, in contrast with the more experienced Vaux, Olmsted had never actually designed and executed a landscape design.

They were announced as winners in 1858. On his return from the South, Olmsted began executing their plan almost immediately. Olmsted and Vaux continued their informal partnership to design Prospect Park in Brooklyn from 1865 to 1873.^[6] That was followed by other projects. Vaux remained in the shadow of Olmsted's grand public personality and social connections.

The design of Central Park embodies Olmsted's social consciousness and commitment to egalitarian ideals. Influenced by Downing and his own observations regarding social class in England, China and the American South, Olmsted believed that the common green space must always be equally accessible to all citizens. This principle is now fundamental to the idea of a "public park", but was not assumed as necessary then. Olmsted's tenure as park commissioner in New York was a long struggle to preserve that idea.

Civil War

Olmsted took leave as director of Central Park to work as Executive Secretary of the U.S. Sanitary Commission, a precursor to the Red Cross in Washington, D.C.. He tended to the wounded during the American Civil War. In 1862, during Union General George B. McClellan's Peninsula Campaign, Olmsted headed the medical effort for the sick and wounded at White House in New Kent County, where there was a ship landing on the Pamunkey River.

On the home front, Olmsted was one of the six founding members of the Union League Club of New York.

U.S. park designer

In 1863, he went west to become the manager of the Rancho Las Mariposas-Mariposa mining estate in the Sierra Nevada mountains in California. Honoring his early work in preserving Yosemite Valley, the promontory Olmsted Point near Tenaya Lake in Yosemite National Park was named after him.

In 1865 Vaux and Olmsted formed Olmsted, Vaux and Company. When Olmsted returned to New York, he and Vaux designed Prospect Park; suburban Chicago's Riverside parks; the park system for Buffalo, New York; Milwaukee, Wisconsin's grand necklace of parks; and the Niagara Reservation at Niagara Falls.

Olmsted not only created numerous city parks around the country, he also conceived of entire systems of parks and interconnecting parkways to connect certain cities to green spaces. Two of the best examples of the scale on which Olmsted worked are the park system designed for Buffalo, New York, one of the largest projects; and the system he designed for Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

For a list of Olmsted designed parks in Buffalo, New York, please see Buffalo, New York parks system.

Frederick Law Olmsted, oil painting by John Singer Sargent, 1895, Biltmore Estate, Asheville, North Carolina

Olmsted was a frequent collaborator with Henry Hobson Richardson, for whom he devised the landscaping schemes for half a dozen projects, including Richardson's commission for the Buffalo State Asylum.^[7] H. H. Richardson Complex

In 1883 Olmsted established what is considered to be the first full-time landscape architecture firm in Brookline, Massachusetts. He called the home and office compound Fairsted. It is now the restored Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site. From there Olmsted designed Boston's Emerald Necklace, the campuses of Stanford University and the University of Chicago, as well as the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago, among many other projects.

Death and legacy

In 1895, senility forced Olmsted to retire. In 1898 he moved to Belmont, Massachusetts and took up residence as a patient at McLean Hospital, whose grounds he had designed several years before. He remained there until his death in 1903. He was buried in the Old North Cemetery, Hartford, Connecticut.

After Olmsted's retirement and death, his sons John Charles Olmsted and Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. continued the work of their firm, doing business as the Olmsted Brothers. The firm lasted until 1980.

A quotation from Olmsted's friend and colleague architect Daniel Burnham could serve as an epitaph. Referring to Olmsted in March 1893, Burnham said, "An artist, he paints with lakes and wooded slopes; with lawns and banks and forest covered hills; with mountain sides and ocean views."^[8]

Academic campuses designed by Olmsted

Between 1857 and 1895, Olmsted designed numerous school and college campuses.

From 1895-1950, the Olmsted Brothers (his successors) added to some of their father's initial projects, as well as designing new ones. (See their article for projects.) Together, these works totaled 355. Some of the most famous of Frederick Law Olmsted are listed here.

American University Main Campus, Washington, D.C. Auburn University Main Campus, Auburn, Alabama Berwick Academy, South Berwick, Maine (1894) Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania (1885) Colgate University, Lower grounds, Hamilton, New York Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado Cornell University, Ithaca, New York (1867–73) Denison University, Granville, Ohio Fairleigh Dickinson University, Madison, New Jersey Gallaudet University, Washington, D.C. (1866) Good Will Home Associasion, Hinckley, Maine Groton School, Groton, Massachusetts Grove City College, Grove City, Pennsylvania Lawrenceville School, Lawrenceville, New Jersey (1883–1901) Manhattanville College, Purchase, New York Miami University, Oxford, Ohio (1912)

Middlesex School, Concord, Massachusetts Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, Massachusetts Noble and Greenough School, Dedham, Massachusetts Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon (1890ss) Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts (1891–1965) Pomfret School, Pomfret, Connecticut St. Albans School (Washington, D.C.) Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts (1891–1909) St. Joseph Hill Academy, Staten Island, New York Stanford University, Palo Alto, California, master plan (1886–1914) Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut (1872–94) University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California, master plan (1865) University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois University of Rochester, Rochester, New York Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri (1865–99) Wellesley College, Wellesley, Massachusetts Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut (1874–81)

Other notable Olmsted commissions

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

Alphabetically

ABC Arnold Arboretum, Boston, Massachusetts Back Bay Fens, Arborway and Riverway, Boston, Massachusetts Beardsley Park, Bridgeport, Connecticut, 1884 Beechcroft Gardens, Roches Point, Ontario, ca. 1870[9] Belle Isle Park, Detroit, Michigan, master plan and landscape in the 1880s Biltmore Estate grounds, Asheville, North Carolina Branch Brook Park, Newark, New Jersey, 1900 redesign Brandywine Park, Wilmington, Delaware, 1886 Brookdale Park, Bloomfield and Montclair, New Jersey built 1928–1931 The parks system of Buffalo, New York Butler Hospital, Providence, Rhode Island Buttonwood Park, New Bedford, Massachusetts Cadwalader Park, Trenton, New Jersey Carroll Park, Bay City, Michigan Central Park, Manhattan, New York City, New York, 1853 (opened in 1856)[10] Cherokee Park, Louisville, Kentucky Civic Center Park, Denver, Colorado Congress Park, Saratoga Springs, New York Cushing Island, Maine DEF Deering Oaks, Portland, Maine Downing Park, Newburgh, New York Druid Hill Park, Baltimore, Maryland Druid Hills, Georgia Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn, New York[10] Elizabeth Park, Hartford & West Hartford, Connecticut Elmwood Cemetery, Detroit, Michigan Fairmount Park, Riverside, California Florham, former estate of Hamilton and Florence (Vanderbilt) Twombly. Now the campus of Fairleigh Dickinson University, Florham Park, New Jersey Forest Park, Springfield, Massachusetts, designed in 1893 Forest Park, Queens, New York[10] Fort Greene Park, Brooklyn, New York[10] Franklin Park, Boston, Massachusetts GHI Genesee Valley Park, Rochester, New York[11] George Ward Park, Birmingham, Alabama Glen Magna Farms, Danvers, Massachusetts Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn, New York[10] Highland Park, Rochester, New York[11] Hubbard Park, Meriden, Connecticut The Institute of Living, Hartford, Connecticut, 1860s

JKL Jackson Park, originally South Park, Chicago, Illinois Kykuit Gardens, Rockefeller family estate, Mount Pleasant, New York from 1897 Lakehurst Gardens, Roches Point, Ontario, ca. 1870[9] Lake Park, Milwaukee, Wisconsin [12] Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition, Portland, Oregon Lynn Woods, Lynn, Massachusetts MNO Manor Park, Larchmont, New York Maplewood Park, Rochester, New York[11] Middlesex School, Concord, Massachusetts MIT Endicott House, Dedham, Massachusetts Montebello Park, St. Catharines, Ontario[13] Morningside Park, New York City, New York[10] Mount Royal Park, Montreal, Quebec, inaugurated in 1876 Mountain View Cemetery, Oakland, California, dedicated in 1865 Nay Aug Park, Scranton, Pennsylvania New York State Hospital for the Insane, Buffalo, New York Newton City Hall landscaping, Newton, Massachusetts, designed by Henry Vincent Hubbard of the Olmsted Brothers firm, dedicated 1932 Niagara Reservation (now Niagara Falls State Park), Niagara Falls, New York, dedicated in 1885 North Park, Fall River, Massachusetts (1901)[14] Ocean Parkway, Brooklyn, New York[10] Oyster Harbors, Osterville, Massachusetts PQR Piedmont Avenue, Berkeley, California Pinehurst, North Carolina, ground broken in 1895 Various parks in Portland, Oregon[15] Presque Isle Park, Marquette, Michigan[16] Prospect Park, Brooklyn, New York, finished 1868[10] Public Pleasure Grounds, San Francisco, California River Park (now Riverside Park), Milwaukee, Wisconsin[12] Village of Riverside, Illinois Riverside Drive, Manhattan, New York[10] Riverside Park, Manhattan, New York[10] The Rockery, Easton, Massachusetts Ruggles Park, Fall River, Massachusetts

STUV Seaside Park, Bridgeport, Connecticut, 1860s Various parks in Seattle, Washington[15] Seneca Park, Louisville, Kentucky Seneca Park, Rochester, New York[11] Shelburne Farms, Shelburne, Vermont Skillman Epilepsy Hospital (subsequently North Princeton Developmental Center) Montgomery, New Jersey Smithsonian National Zoological Park, Washington, D.C. South Mountain Reservation, Essex County, New Jersey (done by successors, not by Olmsted senior) South Park (now Kennedy Park), Fall River, Massachusetts Sudbrook Park, Baltimore, Maryland, 1889 Olmsted Subdivision Historic District, Swampscott, Massachusetts Tyler Park, Lowell, Massachusetts. Smallest park Olmsted and associates designed United States Capitol grounds, Washington, D.C. The Uplands, Victoria, British Columbia, 1907 Utah State Capitol grounds master plan, Salt Lake City, Utah Thompson Park, Watertown, New York[17] Town of Vandergrift, Pennsylvania, 1895 Vanderbilt Mausoleum, New York City, New York[10] WXYZ Walnut Hill Park, New Britain, Connecticut West Park Zoological Gardens (now Washington Park), Milwaukee, Wisconsin [12] Whitman Town Park, Whitman, Massachusetts, circa 1875 Woodburn Circle, West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia Wood Island Park, Boston, Massachusetts (taken by eminent domain in the 1960s to expand Logan International Airport) World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, Illinois, 1893 World's End, formerly the John Brewer Estate, Hingham, Massachusetts, 1889 Wright Brothers Hill, Dayton, Ohio, 1938–1940

Olmsted sites by State and Province

Canada British Columbia Victoria: The Uplands, 1907 Ontario Roches Point: Beechcroft Gardens, ca. 1870[9] Roches Point: Lakehurst Gardens, ca. 1870[9] St. Catharines: Montebello Park[13] Quebec Montreal: Mount Royal Park, inaugurated in 1876 United States Alabama Auburn: Auburn University Birmingham: George Ward Park Florence: University of North Alabama. California Berkeley: Piedmont Avenue Oakland: Mountain View Cemetery, dedicated in 1865 Riverside: Fairmount Park San Francisco: Public Pleasure Grounds Colorado Denver: Civic Center Park Connecticut Bridgeport: Beardsley Park, 1884 Seaside Park, 1860s Hartford: Elizabeth Park (Hartford & West Hartford) The Institute of Living, 1860s New Britain: Walnut Hill Park Delaware Wilmington: Brandywine Park, 1886 Georgia Druid Hills Atlanta Illinois Chicago: Jackson Park, originally South Park World's Columbian Exposition, 1893 Riverside: Village of Riverside Kentucky Louisville Cherokee Park Seneca Park Iroquois Park Shawnee Park Maine Cushing Island Portland: Deering Oaks Maryland Baltimore: Druid Hill Park Sudbrook Park, 1889

Massachusetts Boston: Emerald Necklace: Back Bay Fens, Arborway and Riverway Muddy River Improvement Olmsted Park Jamaica Park Arnold Arboretum Franklin Park Charlesbank Charlestown Heights Commonwealth Avenue - Brighton North End Park and Copps Hill Terrace Pleasure Bay Wood Island Park (taken by eminent domain in the 1960s to expand Logan International Airport) Brookline: Beacon Street Widening Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site Concord: Middlesex School Danvers: Glen Magna Farms Dedham: MIT Endicott House Easton: The Rockery Fall River: North Park, 1901[14] Ruggles Park South Park (now Kennedy Park) Hingham: World's End, formerly the John Brewer Estate, 1889 Lowell: Tyler Park (smallest park Olmsted and associates designed) Lynn: Lynn Woods Malden: Fellsmere Park Parkways, 1893 New Bedford: Buttonwood Park Newton: City Hall park, 1932 Osterville: Oyster Harbors Springfield: Forest Park Swampscott: Olmsted Subdivision Historic District Whitman: Whitman Town Park, circa 1875 Worcester: Elm Park, 1854 Michigan Bay City: Carroll Park Detroit: Belle Isle Park, master plan and landscape in the 1880s Elmwood Cemetery Marquette: Presque Isle Park[16] New Jersey Bloomfield & Montclair: Brookdale Park, built 1928–1931 Essex County: South Mountain Reservation (done by successors, not by Olmsted senior) Florham Park: Florham, former estate of Hamilton and Florence (Vanderbilt) Twombly. Now the campus of Fairleigh Dickinson University Union County: Warinanco Park, built 1923 Newark: Branch Brook Park, 1900 redesign Lawrenceville: Lawrenceville School, central campus, 1883 Trenton: Cadwalader Park New York Buffalo: Buffalo parks system New York State Hospital for the Insane Larchmont: Manor Park Mount Pleasant: Kykuit Gardens, Rockefeller family estate, from 1897 New York City: Brooklyn: Eastern Parkway [10] Fort Greene Park[10] Grand Army Plaza[10] Ocean Parkway[10] Prospect Park, finished 1868[10] Manhattan: Central Park, 1853 (opened in 1856)[10] Fort Tryon Park[10] Morningside Park[10] Riverside Drive[10] Riverside Park[10] Queens: Forest Park[10] Staten Island: Vanderbilt Mausoleum, Moravian Cemetery[10]

N.Y. (cont'd) Newburgh: Downing Park Niagara Falls: Niagara Reservation (now Niagara Falls State Park), dedicated in 1885 Rochester: Genesee Valley Park[11] Highland Park[11] Maplewood Park[11] Seneca Park[11] Saratoga Springs: Congress Park Watertown: Thompson Park[17] North Carolina Asheville: Biltmore Estate grounds Pinehurst: ground broken in 1895 Dilworth: ground broken in 1890 Ohio Dayton: Wright Brothers Hill, 1938–1940 Oregon Portland: Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition Various parks[15] Pennsylvania Scranton: Nay Aug Park Town of Vandergrift: 1895 Rhode Island Providence: Butler Hospital Utah Salt Lake City: Utah State Capitol grounds master plan Vermont Shelburne: Shelburne Farms Washington Seattle: Various parks[15] Template:Spokane: Manito Park, Rockwood Boulevard Washington, D.C. American University Gallaudet University Olmsted Green Smithsonian National Zoological Park United States Capitol grounds West Virginia Morgantown: Woodburn Circle, West Virginia University Wisconsin Milwaukee: Lake Park[12] River Park (now Riverside Park)[12] West Park Zoological Gardens (now Washington Park)[12]

Olmsted in popular culture

In Erik Larson's The Devil in the White City, Olmsted is featured as one of the most important figures participating in the design of the 1893 Chicago World's Columbian Exposition. In the book, his personality and actions are given significant coverage. In addition, his importance in designing the fair is highlighted (e.g., his part in picking the geographic site and his bureaucratic involvement in planning the fair).

See also

• Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site
• Charles Loring Brace
• Landscape architecture
• Landscape designer
• History of gardening
• Park
• Category: Landscape design history

Notes

1. ^ A celebration of the life and work of Frederick Law Olmsted - Biography Page.
2. ^ "F. L Olmstead is Dead; End Comes to Great Landscape Architect at Waverly, Mass. Designer of Central and Prospect Parks and Other Famous Garden Spots of American Cities." New York Times. August 29, 1903.
3. ^ www.springfield375.org
4. ^ Cf. Wilson, p.220. "At the beginning of the Civil War, it was suggested by Olmsted's English publisher that a one-volume abridgment of all three of these books would be of interest to the British public, and Olmsted, then busy with Central Park, arranged to have this condensation made by an anti-slavery writer from North Carolina. Olmsted himself contributed to it a new introduction on The Present Crisis."
5. ^ Olmsted, Frederick Law, "The Cotton Kingdom: A Traveller's Observations on Cotton and Slavery in the American Slave States. Based Upon Three Former Volumes of Journeys and Investigations", Mason Brothers, 1862
6. ^ Lancaster, Clay (1972). Handbook of Prospect Park. Long Island University Press. pp. 51–66. ISBN 0-913252-06-9. http://www.greenswardparks.org/books/handbook.html. 
7. ^ Carla Yanni, The Architecture of Madness: Insane Asylums in the United States, University of Minnesota Press, 2007., 127-139
8. ^ Larson, The Devil in the White City
9. ^ ^{a b c d} Beechcroft and Lakehurst Gardens National Historic Site
10. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w} Commissions which are within New York City are all from: White, Norval & Willensky, Elliot; AIA Guide to New York City, 4th Edition; New York Chapter, American Institute of Architects; Crown Publishers/Random House. 2000. ISBN 0-8129-31069-8; ISBN 0-8129-3107-6.
11. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h} Wickes, Majorie; Tim O'Connell (April 1988). "The Legacy of Frederick Law Olmstead". Rochester History (Rochester Public Library) L (2). ISSN 0035-7413. http://www.rochester.lib.ny.us/~rochhist/v50_1988/v50i2.pdf. Retrieved 2007-12-29. 
12. ^ ^{a b c d e f} Lake Park Friends
13. ^ ^{a b} Montebello Park. City of St. Catharines. Accessed May 16, 2010.
14. ^ ^{a b} Official website, Fall River, Massachusetts
15. ^ ^{a b c d} "The Olmsteds in the Pacific Northwest". http://www.halcyon.com/tmend/Olmsted.htm#Portland. 
16. ^ ^{a b} Presque Isle Park. Michigan. Accessed May 16, 2010.
17. ^ ^{a b} Historic Thompson Park. Watertown, New York.

References

• Beveridge, Charles E; Paul Rocheleau (October 1998). Frederick Law Olmsted: Designing the American Landscape. New York, New York: Universe Publishing. ISBN 0-7893-0228-4. 
• Guide to Biltmore Estates. Asheville, North Carolina: The Biltmore Company. 2003. 
• Hall, Lee (1995). Olmsted's America: An "Unpractical" Man and His Vision of Civilization. Boston, MA: Bullfinch Press. ISBN 0821219987. 
• Olmsted, Frederick Law (1856). A Journey in the Seaboard Slave States; With Remarks on Their Economy. ISBN 083710601X. 
• Roper, Laura Wood. FLO, a biography of Frederick Law Olmsted (1973) online edition
• Rybczynski, Witold (June 1999). A Clearing in the Distance: Frederick Law Olmsted and North America in the Nineteenth Century. New York, New York: Scribner. ISBN 0-684-82463-9. 
• Sears, Stephen W., To the Gates of Richmond: the Peninsula Campaign (1992) Ticknor and Fields, New York, NY ISBN 0-89919-790-6
• Wilson, Edmund, Patriotic gore; studies in the literature of the American Civil War, New York, Oxford University Press, 1962. Cf. Chapter VI on Northerners in the South: Frederick L. Olmsted.
• (2010): "Frederick Law Omsted: Essential Texts", edited by Robert Twombly, WW Norton & Company, New York.

External links

• Frederick Law Olmsted at the Open Directory Project
• The National Association for Olmsted Parks
• The Olmsted Plan KCET Departures Olmsted Plan
• Olmsted and America's Urban Parks, 2010 documentary; supplemental materials at OlmstedFilm.org

Persondata
Name	Olmsted, Frederick Law
Alternative names
Short description	American architect, landscape architect
Date of birth	April 26, 1822
Place of birth	Hartford, Connecticut
Date of death	August 28, 1903
Place of death	Belmont, Massachusetts