Frederick Law Olmsted : $b Landscape architect

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Title: Frederick Law Olmsted : Landscape architect
Author: Olmsted, Frederick Law
Language: English
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FORTY YEARS OF
LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE

BEING THE PROFESSIONAL PAPERS OF

FREDERICK LAW OLMSTED, SENIOR

[Illustration: 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

Frederick Law Olmsted

Made in the United States of America

[Illustration]

ON THE CENTENNIAL YEAR OF HIS BIRTH IS PUBLISHED THIS

FIRST VOLUME OF THE PROFESSIONAL PAPERS OF

FREDERICK LAW OLMSTED

PREFACE

The richness and variety of the professional papers left by Frederick
Law Olmsted, Senior, is astonishing, especially in view of the enormous
amount of work on the ground which he accomplished in the almost
forty years of his active career as a Landscape Architect. Orderly
and thorough by habit of thought, he wrote down with minute care the
various steps of his professional dealings, in many cases retaining
unused drafts which show valuable processes of mind. From the beginning
he realized fully the importance of presenting the new profession to
the public in a favorable light, and was constantly “coming before the
public,”--as the phrase went,--in the daily press and in occasional
pamphlets. Several of his professional reports also were printed at his
own expense, but a far greater number have lain buried in the files of
Park Department Documents or have never been printed in any form. His
personal life after 1857 was so closely bound up with his professional
activities that his family and friendly letters reveal many sidelights
on his work. The record of his professional correspondence is
fortunately full. When the political harassments to which he was
subjected prevented him from sleeping, he used to while away the hours
of the night by writing, sometimes in regard to his current problems
and sometimes bits of general wisdom gained in his professional
experience. About 1890 when he was obliged in some degree to lessen
his travelling about, he wrote several long retrospective letters,
reviewing his career, and he left also two or three short fragments of
autobiography, which are included in this present volume.

Among the many people outside the Olmsted family who had preserved and
were able to return letters for editorial purposes, there should be
especially mentioned: the late Frederick J. Kingsbury of Waterbury,
Conn., who added to the letters a valuable group of reminiscences; Miss
Emma Brace (letters to her father Charles Loring Brace) who assisted
also in the preliminary sorting of Olmsted letters; Miss Sarah Norton
(letters to her father Charles Eliot Norton); and the Vaux family, who
have aided the editors of Mr. Olmsted’s papers in every possible way,
Mr. Bowyer Vaux especially, and given permission for the publication
in Vol. Two of several very illuminating letters from Calvert Vaux to
Mr. Olmsted, in 1864-65, which formed a turning point in the latter’s
career.

The present volume of Mr. Olmsted’s papers is intended as an
introduction to a series covering his main activities as a Landscape
Architect. The writings are to be arranged by large groups, according
to the nature of the works in connection with which they were
written,--public parks and park systems, town plans, land subdivisions,
grounds for public and semi-public buildings, private estates, and
so on. This somewhat arbitrary rather than sequential arrangement is
adopted perforce because Mr. Olmsted’s writings--illuminating as they
are in regard to principles of wide application--relate, with few
exceptions, directly to some specific problem or set of conditions,
dealing with the case now from the point of view of æsthetics, now from
that of utility and convenience or economy, sometimes from that of the
sociologist, sometimes from that of the administrator or that of the
artisan.

Mr. Olmsted wrote not primarily to set forth general theories but
to show how to get satisfactory results under actual specific
circumstances and requirements as he found them, or to carry conviction
of the wisdom of certain courses of action which he advised.

In this connection it is interesting to compare his professional
writings with those of A. J. Downing,--whose friendship unquestionably
did much to stimulate and develop Mr. Olmsted’s interest in landscape
matters, and whose activities in the Central Park campaign and in
bringing Calvert Vaux into relations with Mr. Olmsted led the latter
so unexpectedly into the profession. It is very striking to note the
contrast between Downing’s somewhat doctrinaire and _a priori_ method
of discussing landscape problems, and Mr. Olmsted’s habitual method,
which was frankly to envisage the peculiar facts of each situation
as an individual problem to be solved on its own merits in its own
individual way, and then to test and perhaps correct his conclusions
by reasoning back to find principles consistent alike with the facts
and artistic intuitions present in this particular case and with other
principles and theories accepted by him as sound and true. He looked
on theories and “principles” as valuable tools of service, inevitably
incomplete and defective, frequently in need of reshaping, sharpening
and improvement, and he was seldom tempted to overlook or minimize new
and special factors in a problem merely because their recognition would
force him to modify what he had come to regard as firmly established
principles.

As a result of his method of writing Mr. Olmsted’s published papers
must necessarily be a somewhat disjointed compilation, passages of the
greatest interest and value for their applicability to problems of
residential property occurring in the discussion of a park problem and
vice versa, points of detail in matters of technique sometimes coming
cheek by jowl with discussions of fundamentally controlling purposes.
It is proposed, however, to round out the series by a general volume
which will weave together many fragments and extracts,--mainly from
letters and reports not considered worthy of presentation _in extenso_
in the previous volumes, together with connecting and explanatory
matter by F. L. Olmsted, Junior,--into an orderly and consistent
presentation of the theory and practice of the landscape art as
developed by Frederick Law Olmsted, Senior. This last volume is also to
contain a full subject index to all the material in the whole series
of volumes, thus opening for ready reference a mine of information
on hundreds of topics in the field of landscape architecture and
administration of public works.

While Volume One is devoted to the background of Mr. Olmsted’s
professional career, Volume Two will deal with his first professional
undertaking, the New York Central Park, designed in coöperation with
Calvert Vaux, which marks the beginning of a new era of parks and of
civic design in America. On this account it has seemed desirable to
give a much fuller presentation of Mr. Olmsted’s papers relating to
Central Park than can be given to any other single example of design.
This is the more justifiable because many of the later park reports
repeat and develop principles first stated in connection with Central
Park.

Furthermore the history of Central Park is considered of such
importance in the development of the City of New York that the Russell
Sage Foundation, in connection with the survey of Greater New York
and Environs, has made a special grant to enable the editors of the
Olmsted Papers to produce a monograph on Central Park which shall
not only present the Park from the standpoint of design, but shall
also give a connected history of its conception, design, construction,
and management up to the time of its fullest development before its
principal designers lost touch with it in the 80’s. The volume will
therefore offer not merely, or even primarily, Mr. Olmsted’s personal
contribution as a designer, but rather the conception of the park as
he always regarded it,--as a great collaborative effort in and for a
democratic community.

* * * * *

The editorial work on the great mass of Mr. Olmsted’s papers personal
and professional was begun soon after his death by F. L. Olmsted,
Junior. At this time, 1903-04, the bulk of the papers was gone over
and separated into the more and less important, and a beginning made
on their arrangement, with the assistance of Mr. Philip P. Sharples.
In the spring of 1920, Mr. F. L. Olmsted engaged the present editor’s
services to bring the material into definitive form for publication,
while Mrs. Frederick Law Olmsted, Senior, was still alive to lend the
aid of her memory to the work. During the summer and fall of 1920 Mrs.
Olmsted, at ninety years of age, made it her major occupation, saw the
scheme of the whole series of volumes take shape, and approved the
selection of material for the first volume, in which she herself had
perhaps the greatest personal interest. It was hoped that the first
volume might appear on the hundredth anniversary of Mr. Olmsted’s
birth, April 26, 1922, and that she might live to see it published.
She died on April 23, 1921, but not before she had helped the work
immeasurably not only by her discriminating advice but by the
inspiration of her interest.

The whole work has been subject to the direction, criticism, and
approval of the present Mr. Frederick Law Olmsted, who has made the
editorial work and publication possible, and has added some of the
brief explanatory notes.

T. K.

BROOKLINE, July 28, 1922.

CONTENTS

_PART I_

PAGE

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES 1822-1903 1

_PART II_

EARLY EXPERIENCES: THEIR CONTRIBUTION TO HIS LATER CAREER

CHAPTER

I. AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL PASSAGES 43

II. EARLY PLEASURE TOURS 64

III. STUDY AND READING 68

IV. FARMING 75

V. LANDSCAPING 84

VI. RELATIONS WITH DOWNING 88

VII. LANDSCAPE OBSERVATIONS FROM TRAVEL 94

VIII. SOUTHERN TRIPS, 1852-1854 111

IX. REPUTATION IN 1857 117

_PART III_

AMERICAN LANDSCAPE GARDENING IN 1857 121

ILLUSTRATIONS

FACING PAGE

FREDERICK LAW OLMSTED IN 1850 _Frontispiece_

THE FIVE FRIENDS IN NEW HAVEN DAYS 66
Charles Trask, Frederick J. Kingsbury, John Hull Olmsted,
Charles Loring Brace, and Frederick Law Olmsted.

FACSIMILE OF LETTER WITH MR. OLMSTED’S EARLIEST
SKETCH FOR IMPROVEMENT OF GROUNDS, 1847 84

FACSIMILE OF PETITION TO SECURE APPOINTMENT OF
MR. OLMSTED AS SUPERINTENDENT OF CENTRAL PARK, 1857 120

LIST OF PAPERS AND DOCUMENTS

A sequential list of the more important papers included in this
volume. Matter previously printed is shown by italic type.

Autobiographical Fragments:

PAGE

Passages in the Life of an Unpractical Man 45

Hints Aidful to Elementary Self-Education in Design 58

Selections from Letters to Members of Family and Boyhood
Friends, 1845-1851 64

Account by Mary Cleveland Perkins Olmsted of Life on
Staten Island, and Meeting of Olmsted and Perkins Families 78

Selection from Paper by John Charles Olmsted read before
Boston Society of Landscape Architects, 1916: The
Influence of A. J. Downing upon the Designers of Central Park 88

Letter from F. L. Olmsted to Andrew Jackson Downing, 1850 89

Selections from _Walks and Talks of an American Farmer in
England_, Edition of 1852 94

Selection from _A Journey in Texas_, Edition of 1857, and _A
Journey in the Back Country_, Edition of 1860 111

Petition that F. L. Olmsted be Appointed Superintendent
of the Central Park, 1857, signed by Washington Irving
and others _facing_ 120

Letter from Asa Gray recommending F. L. Olmsted 120

Selection from Article by F. L. Olmsted on _Parks_, Appleton’s
New American Cyclopedia, 1861 125

A Letter from F. L. Olmsted to a Park Commissioner of
Rochester, N. Y., 1888, regarding the Status of Landscape
Architecture in the United States 127

Frederick Law Olmsted

Landscape Architect

PART I. BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES

1822-1903

PART I

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES

1822-1903

1822: Born at Hartford, Conn., son of Charlotte Law
Apr. 26 (Hull) and John Olmsted, prosperous merchant
of Hartford.

1826: “At school to Mrs. Jeffry.”--J. O.[1]
April

1828: “Fredk. has been to Mrs. Jeffry’s school 3 quarters,
Feb. 18 to Mrs. Smith’s one and a half, to Miss
Rockwell’s one. Books at Miss R’s: _Webster’s
Spelling Book_, _Testament_, _Jack Hallyard_, _Peter
Parley’s Tales_, _Juvenile Instructor_.”--J. O.

1829-1830: “To Rev. Z. Whittemore, No. Guilford.”--J. O.

1830: “Returned home and began at Grammar School,
Sep. 27 Hartford.”--J. O.

1831: “To Ellington High School.”--J. O.
May 18

Oct. 8 “To school and board with Rev. Joab Brace, of
Newington.”--J. O. Remained there with visits
home and trips with Father till June 30, 1836,
fitting for college.

1836: “To Rev. G. C. N. Eastman at Saybrooke.”--J.
Jul. 1 O.

Sep. 1 “To Grammar School with John.”--J. O.

Dec. 1 “To Mr. Perkins’ school, East Hartford. Now
ready to enter college.”--J. O.

1837: “To New York, consulted Dr. Wallace for weak
eyes. Advised sea bathing. To Saybrook with
Rev. Eastman again for 3 months. Advised to
give up college on account of eyes.”--J. O.

Nov. 20 “To Andover, Mass., to study engineering with
Prof. Barton. (Nov., 1838 Mr. Barton removed
to Collinsville, Conn. & Fredk. with him. Staid
till May 1840)”--J. O.

1838: Frederick at Andover. Summer vacation journey
to White Mountains.

1839: Father took Frederick to Washington. Home
Dec. 9 Dec. 24.

1840: Went to work for Benkard and Hutton, French
Aug. 18 dry goods importers, New York City. Left their
employ March, 1842.

1842: Attended lectures at Yale.

1843: Sailed before the mast for Canton in the bark
Apr. 23 “Ronaldson.” Vessel back in New York Apr. 15,
1844.

1844: Spent some months at his Uncle Brooks’ farm in
Cheshire (Conn.) learning farming.

1845: Spent summer on Mr. Joseph Welton’s farm at
Waterbury and winter at New Haven attending
lectures.

1846: Went to the farm of Mr. George Geddes, “Fairmount,”
April near Syracuse, N. Y., to study farming.
Home in October.

1847: About to begin independent farming at Sachem’s
Jan’y Head, Guilford, Conn., on a small farm purchased
for him by his Father.

June An “honorary member” of the Class of 1847 at
Yale.

1848: Father bought for Frederick the Ackerly farm,
Jan. 1 South Side, Staten Island, where he soon after
established himself, continuing to operate it until
1854.

Oct. 20 Frederick writes “full of enthusiasm on tree planting
and nurseries.”

1849: Farming and beginning a nursery business.

1850: Sailed from New York on the “Henry Clay” with
Apr. 30 his brother and Charles Brace. Returned by
“City of Glasgow” with brother Oct. 24. “Expenses
of journey about $300 each. 2 weeks in
Germany, 2 weeks in Belgium & France, 1 week in
Ireland, 3 weeks in Scotland, remainder in England.”--J.
O.

1850: Corresponding Secretary of the Richmond County
Agricultural Society.

1851: Farming and writing. Visited A. J. Downing at
Newburgh.

1852: Published _Walks and Talks of an American Farmer
Feb. 18 in England._ (G. P. Putnam & Co., New York.)

Dec. 11 Started on Southern tour.

1853: Letters to the New York _Times_ began, giving his
Feb. 16 impressions of the “Seaboard Slave States.”
(Published as a book of that title, 1856.)

Nov. 10 “Fredk. and John started on their journey to
Mexico and California.”--J. O. (Frederick again
as correspondent for the _Times_. Letters edited
with the help of his brother and published as a
book _A Journey in Texas, 1857_.)

1854: Frederick considered settling in Texas, but returned,
traveling on horseback from New Orleans
to Richmond. Home summer of 1854. (Trip
home published as _A Journey in the Back Country_,
1860.)

1855-1856: With George William Curtis, went into partnership
with Dix and Edwards in publishing business.
Edited _Putnam’s Magazine_. Publishing business
failed, leaving Olmsted and Curtis liable for considerable
amount of bad debts.

1856: Sailed with sister Mary in “Arabia” for Europe,
Feb. 13 mainly on publishing business. Spent greater
part of time in London, but travelled also on continent
in Italy and Germany. Mar. 12, proceeding
from London to Paris with American Envoy’s
dispatches.

1857: In New York trying to wind up Dix and Edwards
Feb. 10 publishing business. “Trial balance still not
ready.”

Sep. 11 Appointed Superintendent of the Central Park in
New York.

1857-1858: At request of Calvert Vaux, collaborated with
him in the preparation of a design for the Central
Park to submit in the recently opened competition.

1858: Olmsted and Vaux awarded first prize for their
Apr. 28 plan submitted under the title “Greensward.”

May 17 Frederick Law Olmsted appointed Architect in
Chief of the Central Park.

1859: Scope of the work extended by enlargement of
Apr. 2 Park area to 110th Street, by act of Legislature.

Jun. 13 Married in Bogardus House, Central Park (by
Mayor Tiemann) Mary Cleveland (Perkins) Olmsted,
widow of his brother John Hull Olmsted,
thus becoming step-father to her children: John
Charles, Charlotte, and Owen. Moved later in
the summer to the old convent building at Mt. St.
Vincent in the Park.

Sep. 28 Sailed for Liverpool on the “Persia,” having been
granted leave of absence and a letter of credit for
£100 by the Park Commissioners “to procure in
Europe material and information of advantage to
Central Park.”

Dec. 5 Sailed from Queenstown on the “America,”
arriving home Dec. 18.

1860: The management of Central Park investigated by
the State Legislature. (Vindicated.)

Furnished to Appleton’s _New American Cyclopedia_
by request first article on _Parks_, in any American
encyclopedia. (Volume published 1861.) See
_post_ p. 125.

Mar. 29 At Hartford with Mr. Vaux to look at the grounds
of the Hartford Retreat for the Insane, for which
advice and plan subsequently given.

1860: Olmsted and Vaux appointed “Landscape Architects
April and designers to the Commissioners North
of 155th Street.”

Jun. 14 A son, John Theodore Olmsted, born. Died in
infancy.

Aug. 6 Thrown from carriage and thigh broken. Park
work directed from bed and later from litter.

1861: _Journeys and Explorations in the Cotton Kingdom_
in 2 volumes published in London, a compilation
of the three Southern journeys already published
in America in 1856, 1857, and 1860, and widely
circulated as accurate information on the state of
the South.

Jan’y Resignation presented to Park Commissioners (on
account of political interference) and withdrawn,
“all carefully kept mum so as not to embarrass the
proceedings at Albany.”

Apr. 17 “My resignation, and all that, is before a Committee
this week.” Withdrawn.

June Leave of absence granted to go to Washington as
Secretary of the United States Sanitary Commission,
which he helped to organize, and of which he
was (under the Presidency of Dr. Bellows) chief
executive officer until 1863. Connection with
Central Park still retained.

Oct. 28 Daughter, Marion Olmsted, born at Mt. St. Vincent.

1862: Considering possibility of securing post of U. S.
April Commissioner of Agriculture and Statistics (bureau
proposed) as alternative to landscape gardening
business.--F. L. O. letter to J. O.

Oct’r In New York to work on the Park, “object and
only justification for being away from Washington.”

Offered office of Street Commissioner by the Mayor
of New York. Accepted “on condition that I am
not to be trammelled in appointments, etc.” Not
consummated.

Dec. 15 Frederick met his father in New York. “Fredk’s
Washington address, 185 South B St., corner of
W. 9th, back of Smithsonian. Office San. Com.,
Adams House, 244 F St.”--J. O.

1862-1863: Joined with Dr. Bellows, Wolcott Gibbs, and
others in the formation of the Union League Club,
to perpetuate the ideals of the United States Sanitary
Commission.

1863: Trip to Cleveland, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Chicago,
Spring etc., on business for Sanitary Commission. “Obvious
want of a pleasure-ground” in Chicago
noted.

May 14 Olmsted & Vaux resign as Landscape Architects
of Central Park. Resolution of confidence passed.

Summer Obliged to withdraw from Sanitary Commission,
owing to overwork.

Interested with Charles Eliot Norton and others
in a project for founding a weekly review. Later,
during his absence in California this project developed
into the _Nation_.

Aug. 10 Offered Superintendency of the Mariposa Mining
estates in California. Accepted.

Sep. 14 Sailed without family in the “Champion” for
California. Arrived at San Francisco Oct. 11.

Late Personal property and professional library burned
Fall while in storage at Staten Island Farm.

1864: Joined by family at the Mariposa Estates, Bear
Early Valley.
Spring

Honorary A.M. from Harvard University, on
account of work for United States Sanitary Commission.

Summer Olmsted family in Yosemite camping. Mr. Olmsted
made trip Eastward through the High Sierras
accompanied by John Charles Olmsted and
Professor Brewer of the State Geological Survey.

Sep. 27 Appointed Commissioner of Yosemite and Mariposa
Big Tree Grove by Governor Low of California
under act of Congress granting same as State
Reservation. Made President of the Commission.

Oct’r “Engaged in plans for laying out a cemetery at
Oakland--and have been consulted as to a park
there.” (Report on Mountain View Cemetery
published 1865.)

Manager’s General Report of the Mariposa Estates
published in New York.

1865: Appointed on Committee for California State
Jan’y Agricultural Fair.

Considers undertaking a newspaper in San Francisco
“instead of going with Vaux on the Brooklyn
Park.”

Mar. 12 Writes to C. Vaux: “I am getting on with my
cemetery--I have made preliminary reconnoissance
for large piece of ground held by College of
California which I propose to lay out upon the
Llewellyn plan--I have given plans for improvement
of a country seat.”

July Offers from Godkin and Norton for work on _Nation_
and Committee of Loyal Publication Society if he
will return to New York.

Jul. 19 Olmsted & Vaux reappointed Landscape Architects
to the Board of Commissioners of Central Park.

Jul. 24 “I have undertaken to lay out a village and
grounds for the College of California which will
occupy what time I have to spare for a month or
two.”--F. L. O. to J. O.

Jul. 26 Notified of election as General Secretary of American
Freedmen’s Union. Refused.

Aug. 31 Proposes to accept Central Park appointment of
which he has just “last night received word from
Vaux” (telegraph out of order) and to resign from
managership of Mariposa Estates.

Sep’r Advising on park for San Francisco.

Olmsted & Vaux appointed to design the Brooklyn
Park.

Sep. 28 Writes to C. Vaux: “I shall bring work enough to
keep Miller busy for fully a month after arrival, I
think. I only work out the park plans crudely
here, so as to have your help on it. The profit of
it I intend to share with you--also to put O. & V.
to the engraved cemetery plan if you approve.
This latter also to be finished in New York.”

Nov. 17 Officially selected to report to the Board of Supervisors
a plan for a public park for San Francisco.

Nov. 22 Arrived with family in New York from California.

1866: Report upon a Projected Improvement of the
Estate of the College of California at Berkeley,
Olmsted, Vaux & Co., printed.

Report on Columbia Institute for the Deaf and
Dumb, Olmsted, Vaux & Co., printed, Washington,
D. C.

Pamphlet: A Few Things to be thought of before
proceeding to plan buildings for the National
Agricultural College, printed.

Spring Olmsted family residing at Amos Street, Clifton,
near Vanderbilt’s Landing, Staten Island, for Mr.
Olmsted’s convenience in ferrying across to
Brooklyn for the Park work.

Mar. 31 Report on Public Pleasure Grounds for San Francisco
submitted. (Afterwards printed.)

May 29 Olmsted, Vaux & Co. reappointed Landscape
Architects to the Board of Commissioners of Prospect
Park, Brooklyn. Preliminary report of the
Landscape Architects was published 1866.

1867: Park work for New Britain, Conn.

Honorary A.M. Amherst College.

June Advice to Charles Eliot Norton on subdivision
into lots and street connections of property near
Harvard University. (Advice also in 1868 and
1869 and later). At this time a strong friendship
was formed between the Norton and Olmsted
families, and Mr. Olmsted’s visits to the Nortons
were among the few personal visits he made.

Oct. 4 Visit to Newark, N. J., to give advice on park,
followed by report. (Later printed.)

1868: Preliminary report upon the proposed suburban
village at Riverside near Chicago, Olmsted, Vaux &
Co., printed.

Reports for Brooklyn Park Commission on Washington
Park, Parade Grounds, and Street Plans,
printed.

Report on proposed city park for Albany, O. V. &
Co., printed.

Feb. 8 Plan to C. E. Norton, Harvard University, for
connecting walks through University grounds,
vicinity Oxford Street and Norton property.

Aug’t To see Barry and “learn what had become of the
Rochester Park project.” Also with Calvert Vaux
visited Vassar College to give advice as to plan.

Aug. 14 “I have a business invitation today from Buffalo
and shall splice it into the Chicago expedition in
some way.” Aug. 25, addressed public meeting
in Buffalo in regard to Park project.

Aug. 29 Mentions jobs in letter to C. Vaux: Buffalo,
Brooklyn, Chicago-Riverside.

1869: Brooklyn park work very absorbing. (H. W. S.
Cleveland employed by Mr. Olmsted on the
Brooklyn work at this time.) Riverside going on.
Preliminary report for Buffalo park printed.

(About) Conversation at Cataract House with Mr. William
Sep’r Dorsheimer and others regarding the preservation
of Niagara Falls.

1870: Reports: on park for New Britain; to Mr. J. S.
Blatchford (Boston) on Needham Hundreds (suitability
for residential land subdivision); to Maine
Agricultural College (printed); and on park site
for Hartford (probably 1870).

Address before American Social Science Association
at Lowell Institute, Boston: Public Parks
and the Enlargement of towns (printed).

Mar. 5 Appointed on the Commission for the Improvement
of Staten Island, with H. H. Richardson and
others.

Apr. 5 Advice to Amherst College.

Apr. 7 Olmsted, Vaux & Co. agreement with Chicago
South Park Commission.

June O. V. & Co. Report to the Committee on Park
Improvement, Fall River.

Jun. 2 O. V. & Co. letter refers to “Recent changes of
administration in Central Park, and change of
organization now occurring with pending legal
proceedings threatening from day to day a suspension
of work on the Brooklyn Parks under our
superintendence.”

Jul. 22 Advice to C. K. Hamilton in regard to proposed
resort or “exposition” on Staten Island.

Jul. 24 Son, Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., born.

Aug. 2 Letter of advice to General Meigs in regard to
planting of National Cemeteries.

Nov. 30 Olmsted and Vaux resigned from their Central
Park duties after their advice had been disregarded
and politics rendered their situation impossible.

1871: Reports for Chicago South Park and Staten Island
improvement printed.

Mar. 11 Olmsted, Vaux & Co., asked to prepare a plan for
park in Philadelphia and preliminary sketch
submitted.

July “My age is 50 years, residence New York City,
occupation Landscape Architect.”--F. L. O. in
deposition.

At work on Tarrytown Heights subdivision.

Sep’r Shared house in 45th St. with friends, and spent
there winter of 1871-1872.

Oct’r Advice on subdivision at Irvington, N. Y. for
Cyrus W. Field. (Olmsted, Vaux & Co. Memorandum
of suggestions printed.)

Nov. 23 Olmsted and Vaux reappointed Landscape Architects
of New York Department of Public Parks.

1872: Report on new suburban district of Tarrytown
Feb’y Heights, Olmsted, Vaux & Co. (printed).

May Report on sites for Trinity College, Hartford.

May 29 Appointed a Commissioner of the New York Department
of Public Parks, and elected President
and Treasurer of the Board. (Calvert Vaux
appointed Landscape Architect.) Resigned and
reappointed Landscape Architect, Oct. 24, C. Vaux
becoming Consulting Landscape Architect.

Oct. 18 Partnership between Olmsted and Vaux dissolved
for reasons of mutual convenience.

Late Moved to house at 209 West 46th Street, permanent
Fall residence and office until 1883 (although most
of time subsequent to 1880 actually spent in Boston).

Dec. 13 Report to Massachusetts General Hospital on
sites for its “Retreat for the Insane.” (McLean
Asylum.)

Dec’r Memorandum from account sheet “Vaux in a/c
with O. & V.” Brooklyn; Fall River Park Dept.;
Central Park; Chicago expenses; Philadelphia expenses;
Poughkeepsie expenses; Providence Park;
W. B. Ogden; Trinity Bridge; Tillinghast; F. E.
Church (place on Hudson); Chase; Barr; McCormick.
Undetermined a/c: Phila. Park; Tarrytown
extra work; Finance Dept.; Mr. Gillette, Kaatskill.

1873: Year marked by very active work on the Central
Park and the preparation of a large number of
special reports, including reorganization of the
Keepers force, Statistical Report of the Landscape
Architect with historical survey of Central Park,
etc.

Preliminary visit to Mount Royal, Montreal.
This was made the occasion of a pleasure trip in
which Mrs. Olmsted and the H. H. Richardsons
participated.

Jun. 17 Attended Rhododendron Show of Massachusetts
Horticultural Society on Boston Common as
representative of the N. Y. Dept. of Public Parks.

Aug. 17 Reports on examination of land in Waverly for
McLean Asylum,--3d report on subject.

Sep. 17 Presented resignation as Landscape Architect of
the N. Y. Dept. of Public Parks. Consented “to
resume service under the Commission upon a
modified arrangement, vindicating my professional
standing and securing me against another similar
experience.”

1874: Coöperated with Mr. Weidenmann on Hyde estate.
Checks deposited for services Oakwood Cemetery
(Syracuse), Amherst (Mass.) Common, Yale
College, and for grounds of Mr. Lord, Morristown,
N.J.

On salary from Buffalo Park Commission and
United States Capitol.

Several special reports on Central Park printed.

Jan’y Report submitted to Senator Morrill on Public
Grounds at Washington, including Capitol grounds
and area to Lafayette Square. Mr. Olmsted’s
Capitol work was facilitated by his coöperation
and friendship with Edward Clark, who held the
office of Architect of the Capitol.

April Design for United States Hotel grounds, Saratoga
Springs.

May 1 Entered into working arrangement with Mr.
Jacob Weidenmann, landscape architect, then of
New York, to use his office facilities and secure
occasional coöperation. Draft of announcement
reads: “Mr. Olmsted and Mr. Weidenmann can
at all times be commanded for any business of their
common profession.”

May 14 Planting plan and report for Jeffersonville (Ind.)
U. S. Army Depot.

Jun. 27 Report to Hartford Insane Retreat on west portion
of grounds.

Nov’r Engaged for advice on the development of Mount
Royal Park, Montreal, and furnished written
instructions during progress of construction (1874-1876).

Dec’r Deposited check from Johns Hopkins University
for plan.

1875: Engaged in giving advice for the laying out of a
“summer village” at Chatauqua Point.

Plan for the new stairways and terraces west of
the U. S. Capitol favorably reported by the Committees
of Public Buildings and Grounds and
adopted by Congress.

Reports for Buffalo and New York City parks
(Riverside Park with Vaux) printed. Revised
article on _Parks_ in Appleton’s Cyclopedia published.

May Gives advice as to lay-out of grounds and placing
of buildings, Trinity College, Hartford, to replace
plans previously given, but mislaid.

May 6 Requested by the Q. M. General of the War Dept.
to furnish plans for the “improvement of its
grounds in a tasteful manner” of the Schuylkill
Arsenal, Philadelphia.

June Plans for McLean Asylum lay-out requested, on
site in Waverly recommended.

After graduation from Sheffield Scientific School
at Yale, John Charles Olmsted became an apprentice
with Frederick Law Olmsted.

Jul. 31 Visit, consultation and advice to Park Commission,
Providence, R. I.

Oct’r-Nov’r In correspondence with Boston Park Commissioners
about the Boston Park system.

Nov. 5 “The Landscape Architect is hereby requested to
prepare a plan for laying out the Annexed district
of the 23d and 24th Wards,” City of New York.

1876: Prepared for Centennial Exposition, Philadelphia,
a map of Buffalo showing “late additions to the
plan.”

Mar. 3 Report of Advisory Board on plans of the new
Capitol at Albany (Olmsted, Eidlitz, and Richardson).
Later printed. The friendship of the three
collaborators in this Albany work became lifelong.

March-June Reports for Johns Hopkins University on “Clifton
Estate” site.

Apr. 8 Letter to Boston Park Commission on proposed
park sites: Charles River embankment, Back Bay,
Jamaica Pond, West Roxbury.

May 31 Accepted unpaid office under the New York State
Survey, from which he resigned in August because
he was advised that it was doubtful if he could
legally hold office under both New York City and
State. Political enemies caused his salary as Landscape
Architect to the N. Y. Dept. of Public Parks
to be withheld, for which he entered suit. Suit
won 1877 on ground that the Landscape Architect
of the City of New York was not an officer.

Aug. 4 Reinstated by resolution of the Commissioners of
the N. Y. Dept. of Public Parks, a resolution to
discontinue his services failing to pass.

Nov. 13 Deposited check from Buffalo State Asylum for
grounds.

Nov. 15 Submitted Preliminary Report of the Landscape
Architect and the Civil and Topographical Engineer
(Croes) upon the laying out of the 23d and
24th Wards (New York City). Report “introductory
to a series of plans for laying out the new
wards of the city. The first of these can, if desired,
be laid before the Board at its next meeting, a
second and third are in preparation and the whole
series is in progress of study.” All later printed,
including report on local steam transit routes
(1877).

Dec’r Advice to Baltimore on Washington Monument
grounds.

1877: Construction work on the United States Capitol
proceeding according to his plans.

July Mentions Baltimore, Washington, and Montreal
as going on.

Jul. 15 “I am warmly engaged in the fight upon the
(N. Y. State) Capitol just now, having been most
of the time the last two weeks in Albany.”

Dec. 12 Board of Commissioners of the N. Y. Dept. of
Public Parks orders Mr. Olmsted’s salary, withheld
by Comptroller on account of charges against
him, to be paid.

Dec. 26 Board grants him leave of absence for three months
without pay on account of ill health.

1878: Removed by the Board as Superintendent of the
Jan. 5 Bureau of Design of the N. Y. Dept. of Public
Parks, on alleged grounds of economy, it being
stated in the resolution of removal that his services
might later be availed of as necessary. The conclusion
of a long and harassing political persecution.

Jan. 8 Sailed for Europe for four months, where he
travelled about accompanied by J. C. Olmsted.
Places noted as being visited: Birkenhead Park,
London Parks, Bruges Park, The Hague, Amsterdam,
Frankfort, Munich, Venice, Florence, Pisa,
Genoa, Milan, Como, Maggiore, Turin, Macon,
Dijon.

May Commissioners of the Connecticut State Capitol
authorized to consult Mr. Olmsted about laying
out Capitol grounds at Hartford. (Reports in
July and August.)

July Writes Édouard André in regard to his professional
work, mentioning as especially important the
Arboretum at Boston and the Capitol at Washington.

Summer Spent with E. L. Godkin in Cambridge in order to
work out plans for Arboretum with Professors
Gray and Sargent.

Dec’r Memorial for preservation of Niagara Falls in
course of receiving signatures. Charles Eliot Norton
writes to Mr. Olmsted Dec. 23, “Carlyle
signs.”

Articles of agreement between Mr. Olmsted and
the Park Department of Boston in regard to “Back
Bay Park.”

1879: Writes to É. André, “I am doing but little professionally,
Jun. 6 my most important active work being
the Capitol Grounds at Washington.” Work also
on Boston Parks (Back Bay), Arboretum, and
campaign for protection of Niagara Falls.

Summer Lived partly in Brookline and partly with E. L.
Godkin in Cambridge.

Jul. 30 Report on development of Rockaway Point as
amusement resort, following visits earlier in July
to Rockaway and Coney Island.

Aug’t Advice to J. Letchworth, Auburn, N. Y., as to his
country place.

Sep’r Vacation trip to New Brunswick and Quebec.

Oct. 10 Writes to Charles Eliot Norton that he has met
four of the N. Y. State Niagara Commissioners
and the Premier and members of the Council of
Ontario, and his general scheme has been approved.
James T. Gardiner, Director of the State Survey,
had been instructed by joint resolution to see
what measures were expedient for the preservation
of Niagara and to prepare a project and associate
with him Mr. Olmsted. Report published 1880.

Nov’r Deposited check for plan of “Belleview” suburb of
Newark, N. J.

Nov. 3 Visit to Boston, chargeable each one third to
Arboretum, Schlesinger (estate, Brookline), and
Boston Park Department.

Nov. 19-21 Visit to Utica and Albany, chargeable to State
Survey.

Nov. 22 Visit to Washington, chargeable to U. S. Capitol
grounds.

1880: “My business lies now more in Boston than New
York.” Main work still Boston Parks, Capitol at
Washington, and Niagara.

Read at meeting of American Social Science Association,
at Saratoga, paper: A Consideration of the
Justifying Value of a Public Park. (Published
1881.)

Advice as to trees in Jerome Park, Sheepshead Bay
Race Course.

Jul. 14 Asked by C. A. Dana of the New York _Sun_ to write
a series of “a dozen or 20 or 30” articles on the
best private parks, grounds, or estates, in all parts
of the country. Declined.

1881: Numerous visits to North Easton on Memorial
work.

Report for Mount Royal Park printed.

Work for Boston Parks proceeding, including suggestions
for The Improvement of Muddy River.
(Printed.)

Jan’y Professional letterhead:
F. L. Olmsted 209 West 46th St.
J. C. Olmsted New York

Apr. 21 Deposited check from James T. Gardiner for
report on Niagara to State Survey Commission.

Jul. 1 Bill to Montauk Association for advice as to disposition
of cottages in summer colony at Montauk.

Sep. 27 Advice on the forest treatment of Phillips estate at
Beverly, Mass.

1881-1882: Residence mainly in Brookline.
Winter

1882: Reports printed relating to U. S. Capitol at Washington,
Albany State Capitol, and Belle Isle Park,
Detroit.

Feb’y Published: Spoils of the Park with a few leaves
from the deep laden note book of “a wholly unpractical
man,” a reminiscent account of political
interference in the management of Central Park.
Just after this, he wrote to a friend; “You can
have no idea what a drag life had been to me for
three years or more. I did not appreciate it myself
until I began last summer to get better. The
turning point appears to have been an abandonment
of New York.... I have done much hard
and steady work. The pamphlet of which you
speak was mostly written after midnight and did
not prevent me from getting regularly five or six
hours refreshing sleep. I enjoy this suburban
country beyond expression and in fact, the older I
grow, find my capacity for enjoyment increasing.
We have had great trials and agitations in the last
year but the result of the whole has been with all
tranquillizing. I am to turn sixty with two grandsons.”

Nov. 9 Letter to J. C. Olmsted mentions jobs going on:
Washington Capitol, Detroit Park, Boston Parks
(Back Bay and Commonwealth Avenue), Providence
(land subdivision), North Easton (memorial--Ames),
Newport (Easton’s Beach and private
estates), Albany State Capitol, Buffalo and Bridgeport
Parks, Niagara Reservation. Jobs in 1882
also on Boston & Albany R. R. station at Auburndale
(Mass.), Aspinwall Land Company subdivision,
Summit (N. J.) Improvement Association,
Quincy (Mass.) Library, Weld estate at Dedham,
H. H. Hunnewell estate at Wellesley, and for many
other private clients.

1882-1883: In Brookline, at Taylor house on Dudley Street.
Winter

1883: Bought house at 99 Warren Street, Brookline,
which became permanent home and office.

Charles Eliot an apprentice with Mr. Olmsted
(until 1885).

Work going on for Boston Parks and Arboretum,
Detroit Park, U. S. Capitol, Goddard land subdivision
at Providence, Cushing’s Island in Portland
Harbor, Boston and Albany R. R. (stations
at Beacon Street, Allston, Brighton, Faneuil,
Newton, Newtonville, West Newton, Riverside,
Brookline, Reservoir, Chestnut Hill, Newton
Center and Palmer), Massachusetts General Hospital
(McLean) Insane Asylum at Waverly,
Lawrenceville School, Amherst College, and Madison
(now Colgate) University, and many private
clients.

Active assistance to successful conclusion of campaign
for the preservation of Niagara Falls, in
which Mr. Olmsted was interested, with Messrs.
Potter, Dorsheimer, Norton, and others, since
1869.

1884: John Charles Olmsted taken into full partnership.
Firm name: F. L. & J. C. Olmsted.

Participation in campaign for preservation of
Adirondack region.

Work recorded for Amherst College, University
of Vermont, Groton School, Memorial Park at
New London, Boston and Albany Railroad, Town
of Brookline (Aspinwall Avenue region), Brookline
Country Club (drainage), Narragansett Casino
Company. Among others, advice given for estates
at Lenox, Stockbridge, Beverly, Waltham, Mass.
Land subdivisions planned at Chestnut Hill
(Mass.), Newport, Providence, Yonkers, and five
or six other places.

Jan’y “Went with Richardson the architect to Maiden
and determined the site of the proposed memorial
Library.”

Mar. 11 “I expect to leave Friday evening at latest with
my preliminary plan for Belle Isle.”

May 24 Mentions in letter to J. C. Olmsted jobs on Trenton
and Boston parks, Capitol at Washington, Lawrenceville
School, Chestnut Hill, Cypress Street,
and Brookline stations, and visit with McKim to
Stillman place above Sing Sing.

Sep. 23 Wrote to Boston Park Commissioners on lay-out
of a park at West Roxbury (later Franklin Park).

Dec’r Asked to be one of two experts to conduct the first
Civil Service examination in landscape gardening
given by New York Department of Public Parks
for position “superintendent of gardening.”

1885: Work for City of Boston (Back Bay, Wood Island,
West Roxbury Parks, and Massachusetts Avenue),
Town of Brookline (new street lay-out Harvard
Street--Aspinwall Avenue region), Amherst and
Smith Colleges, Groton and Lawrenceville Schools,
Boston and Albany Railroad (Palmer and
Wellesley Hills), McLean Asylum, Cairn Memorial
at North Easton, Billings Library at Burlington,
and fifteen or twenty private clients.

1886: List of clients during the year includes: U. S.
Capitol, Niagara, Stanford University, a Society
at Amherst, Lawrenceville School, Groton School,
McLean Asylum, Newport Hospital (land subdivision),
Rotch Memorial Church, B. & A. Palmer
Station, Brookline Country Club, Boston and
Buffalo Parks, Bridgeport Park, New York Riverside
Park, a half dozen land subdivisions in Brookline
(including Beacon Street region) and Buffalo,
Vanderbilt Tomb, Andrew Carnegie, and about
thirty other private clients.

Report: Notes on the Plan of Franklin Park and
related matters, printed.

Mar. 16 Had just been to Lenox where he had “been advising
a Vanderbilt colony.”

Aug’t Started for California, in connection with proposed
university for Governor Stanford. En route,
visited Minneapolis parks and saw H. W. S. Cleveland
there.

Sep. 29 “Site settled at last” for new University at Palo
Alto.

Sep. 30 In San Francisco and “hope to see the park”
(twenty years after his original design of 1866).
Visit followed by brief report (printed).

Oct. 17 Reached Boston from California.

1887: Work going on especially for Boston and Buffalo
Parks, two land subdivisions in Brookline and one
or two in Buffalo, and Arboretum for Dr. Webb at
Shelburne, Vt. Studies being made for a report on
National Zoo at Washington.

General plan for the improvement of the Niagara
Reservation, by F. L. Olmsted and Calvert Vaux,
printed by the State of New York.

Interested by Professor Sargent in the founding of
_Garden and Forest_, a journal to promote the landscape
art. During the illness of the directing editor
Professor Sargent, Mr. Olmsted undertook much
work in connection with the magazine.

Jan. 26 From Salt Lake City, having visited Black Rock,
Garfield, and Lake Point, writes to C. F. Adams,
President of Union Pacific Railroad in regard to
proposed hotel development at Garfield.

Feb’y Sounded in regard to advice to Canadian Commissioner
of Niagara. (Letter of advice sent in
August.)

Apr. 20 Appointed at a meeting of Board, Department of
Public Parks of New York City, Landscape Architect
Advisory to the Board. Subsequently visits
made and advice given mainly in regard to Morningside
and Riverside Parks. Connection suspended
by Mr. Olmsted, July 1887. General Plan
for Morningside Park, with Calvert Vaux, printed.
Received check July 5, for “consultation as to
Riverside etc. last year.”

Oct’r Trip to California in connection with the development
of Leland Stanford Jr. University.

Dec’r Report in letter to chairman of the Park Commission,
St. Catherine’s, Ontario, for Montebello
Park.

1888: Major public work, for parks of Buffalo and
Rochester, N. Y.; Leland Stanford Jr. University;
park system report (with J. C. Olmsted) for Pawtucket,
R. I. Advice or plans given for Redstone
Mining town, and land subdivisions at Brookline
(Corey Hill), Chestnut Hill, Readville, and Swampscott,
Mass., Newport, R. I., Buffalo, and several
other places, and for proposed hotel at Lake Sunapee;
also for a large number of private estates and
for Groton and Lawrenceville Schools. Requests
for designing two cemeteries refused.

Aug’t Engaged in preliminary discussion of proposed
Biltmore estate for Mr. George W. Vanderbilt, at
Asheville, N. C. Survey begun in October.

1889: Henry Sargent Codman taken into partnership.
Firm name: F. L. Olmsted & Co.

Advice to New York Department of Parks against
Speeding Track in Central Park.

Advice on park matters given to Arlington, Newton,
and Plymouth, Mass., and Providence, R. I.,
besides Boston and Brookline (Muddy River
improvement). Work for Leland Stanford, Groton
School, Leake and Watts Orphan House,
memorial chapel at Falmouth, and B. & A. Wellesley
station; Perry Park (Prospectus 1890) and
Lake Wauconda subdivisions near Denver,
“World’s End” development on Boston Harbor,
numerous other subdivisions, and a large number
of private estates, including “Biltmore”.

Report on Central Park published: Observations
on the Treatment of Public Plantations, prepared
with J. B. Harrison at instance of West Side Improvement
Association, New York City.

Feb. 25 Read paper at Brookline Club: Our Roads and
What They are leading us to.

April Advice to the Governor of Alabama in regard to
State Capitol grounds at Montgomery.

June “Getting figures for marble fountain on Capitol
terrace” at Washington. Also visited Biltmore.

Aug. 6 Addressed as Consulting Landscape Architect,
New York Department of Public Parks.

Sep’r Asked to give his views on sites in New York City
for World’s Columbian Fair, and aided movement
against proposed location in Central Park.

Nov’r Advice to Lynn (Mass.) Park Commissioners in
regard to Lynn Woods. (Report on this subject
printed 1892.)

Dec’r Advice to Newburgh on Downing Park. Calvert
Vaux associated on report.

Earl of Meath suggested that Mr. Olmsted go to
London to advise Meath’s commission on the
beautifying of the old burial grounds of London.

1890: “My office is much better equipped and has more
momentum than ever before.” “I am at this time
(with my partners) the landscape architect of
twenty works of considerable importance, that is
to say, I do not include in that ordinary private
grounds. Nine of these twenty are large public
parks of cities; two, government works; three,
works of commercial corporations; one, of a benevolent
corporation, and six, private undertakings
of such character as to make them matters of
public interest, operations on them being systematically
reported in the newspapers.” (The
works of commercial corporations alluded to were
land subdivisions, and the cities to which advice
on park matters had been rendered particularly at
this time included Boston,--Marine and Wood
Island Park reports printed 1890,--Rochester,
New York City, Wilmington, and Hartford. The
most important private work was Biltmore, the
new Vanderbilt estate at Asheville, N. C, the
remainder mentioned being other Vanderbilt,
Rockefeller and Twombly estates.)

Collection of United States Sanitary Commission
Papers arranged by Mr. Olmsted, and presented
by him with an introductory statement (printed),
to the Loyal Legion of Boston.

Issued leaflet in regard to the Yosemite: Governmental
Preservation of Natural Scenery.

June Report: Project of Operations for the Improvement
of the Forest of Biltmore, sent Mr. Vanderbilt.

July Consulted by Superintendent of West Point as to
course to be pursued in future development of
West Point.

Aug’t In Chicago reporting on a site for the World’s
Fair.

Dec’r Advice to Marblehead on proposed shore road.

1891: Deposited check for services on National Zoological
Jan. 16 Park.

Jan. 20 Writes to Frederick Kingsbury: “Our Southern
circuit includes, or has recently included, Richmond,
Montgomery, Knoxville, Nashville and
Louisville [parks]. In the far West we have works
in progress, two in Colorado and one in California.
Altogether I have to do a great deal of long journeying
... but personal activity on the ground
... is the part of the work I can least turn over
to my partners.” As to the Biltmore estate, he
says: “I have been giving it practical form and
have each division of the scheme in operation.”
The other Vanderbilt commissions are mentioned,
then:--“Our business is constantly increasing and
in such a way that it is impossible to get the additional
assistants for it, being of a class of which
there are but few accomplished in the world; so
we are always personally under an agitating pressure
and cloud of anxiety. The most serious point
just now is Chicago” (World’s Fair). Chicago
and Biltmore claimed the major part of his time.
He also gave personal attention to the site of the
Soldiers’ Memorial Arch at Concord, N. H., to
Presque Isle at Marquette, Mich., and to the
Rochester Parks.

March Invited by the Brooklyn Park Commissioners to
examine the plantations in Prospect Park.

Oct’r Advice to Elmwood Cemetery, Detroit, suggesting
“certain general principles as to future management.”

Nov’r Letter to Mr. Newlands on subdividing property
in Washington, D. C, and streets in the new
Connecticut Avenue district.

1892: Consulted by the United States Government on
the development of the reservation at Hot Springs,
Ark.

March Trip from Biltmore to Knoxville to Louisville to
Chicago to Rochester to Boston.

Apr. 2 Sailed for Europe for rest, accompanied by Philip
Codman, F. L. Olmsted, Jr., and Marion Olmsted.
Illness while abroad prevented his doing much
travelling for professional study himself, although
he moved somewhat about England and France.
He directed the studies of his pupils Philip Codman
and F. L., Jr., with constant interest, and he was
able to make a study of pleasure boating on the
Thames as a basis for the scheme of water activities
on the Lagoons of the World’s Fair, subsequently
carried out.

Jun. 16 In a letter to his office from England, he asks after
the following jobs: World’s Fair, Louisville, Marquette,
Whitelaw Reid, Twombly, and Newport.

Jul. 30 Writes his partner, Harry Codman: “I assume
that very soon after my return it will be desirable,
extremely desirable, that I should take a very long
railroad journey, Rochester, Chicago, Louisville,
Kansas City (parks), Biltmore, Atlanta and
various places nearer home. I did not mention
Milwaukee and Marquette.”

Oct. 11 In Chicago on World’s Fair business, having just
returned from Europe. He feels the need for
opening a Western office and mentions being about
to leave for Kansas City.

Oct. 21 Present at the Dedication Ceremonies of the
World’s Fair and received one of the special
medals “struck in recognition of the services of the
Architects, Artists and Designers of the World’s
Columbian Exposition ... the first time in the
history of the country that such services have been
publicly recognized.”--Letter of invitation from
D. H. Burnham.

Nov’r At Biltmore for conference with Mr. Vanderbilt.
Mentions in a letter to J. C. Olmsted that he feels
“guilty of neglect of Boston work.”

1893: Report printed on the occupation of the new site
for Columbia College (New York), by F. L. O.
and W. R. Ware.

Article on Mr. Olmsted by Mrs. Van Rensselaer
published in the _Century Magazine_ with Mr. Olmsted’s
consent and based on information which he
mainly furnished.

Jan’y Sudden death of Harry Codman, on whom Mr.
Olmsted had “thrown a good deal” of the World’s
Fair work, made it necessary for Mr. Olmsted “to
jump in and shoulder the Chicago work with others
for a time, and so manage them that with good
luck nobody complained and I was even myself
not extremely dissatisfied with the results.”

Feb’y Charles Eliot taken into partnership with F. L.
Olmsted & Co. On March 15 the firm name was
changed to Olmsted, Olmsted & Eliot.

Feb. 17 Writes to J. C. Olmsted that he considers of major
importance the following jobs: Boston parks,
Boston Metropolitan parks (brought in by Charles
Eliot), Columbian Exposition, Biltmore estate,
Bay Ridge Parkway in Brooklyn, the parks in
Louisville, Kansas City, Milwaukee, Rochester,
Buffalo, the two Newport places, Lenox, Monmouth
County place, N. J. He adds “I wish that
we could drop the three last and everything else.”
... “I do think that we shall have to decide on
throwing up a lot of our business. I am not to be
depended on (Mr. Olmsted was then nearly seventy-one
years old).... Common prudence requires
that you should lay out your course not counting
on me.” From this time on Mr. Olmsted declined
personal responsibility for all private work, counting
Biltmore because of its magnitude a semi-public
undertaking.

Mar. 23 A guest of honor at the dinner[2] given to D. H.
Burnham and other artists of the World’s Columbian
Exposition by fellow architects and the City
of New York. During the speaking Charles Eliot
Norton said: “Of all American artists, Frederick
Law Olmsted, who gave the design for the laying-out
of the grounds of the World’s Fair, stands first
in the production of great works which answer the
needs and give expression to the life of our immense
and miscellaneous democracy.” Mr. Burnham
said: “Each of you knows the name and genius of
him who stands first in the heart and confidence of
American artists, the creator of your own parks
and many other city parks. He it is who has been
our best adviser and common mentor. In the highest
sense he is the planner of the Exposition--Frederick
Law Olmsted. No word of his has fallen
to the ground among us since first he joined us
some thirty months ago. An artist, he paints with
lakes and wooded slopes; with lawns and banks and
forest-covered hills; with mountain-sides and
ocean views. He should stand where I do to-night,
not for his deeds of later years alone, but for what
his brain has wrought and his pen has taught for
half a century.”

Apr. 10 Slept in Cleveland to break the journey to Chicago
(has had to give up sleeping on the train) and
writes to J. C. O. “you might send me also the
Harvard College map. I may have a chance to
study it and be prepared for discussion with Eliot.”

June LL.D. degree from Harvard and LL.D. also from
Yale. The Harvard degree was conferred by
President Eliot in the following words: _Fredericum
Law Olmsted, qui, ruris specie in urbes introducta,
casas pauperum, domus feliciorum, ædificia publica,
exornavit, æque saluti et delectationi civium omnium
consuluit._

Sep’r Charles Eliot “is now in the West as my alternate
for various professional consultations with Milwaukee,
Louisville, Kansas City, and other corporations.
John travels less than the rest of us,
being in direction of the office in which there are
fifteen to twenty draughtsmen and clerks, the
preparation of work for whom over-fully occupies
him. I have come to greatly dread traveling....
I suppose that as long as I live I shall be forced to
make long journeys to meet Boards, Legislative
Committees, etc., as, although the young men may
be my superiors, they cannot testify with the
weight of experience that I bring.”

Oct. 18 Writes back to his office about the Hot Springs matter
(on which there had been government misunderstanding)
while on “a bad piece of Richmond
and Danville R. R.” on his way to Biltmore.

Oct. 24-Nov. At Biltmore “mainly engaged on the Arboretum.”
20

Nov. 23 At Atlanta in connection with the proposed Cotton
Exposition, at the instance of Mr. Joel Hurt.

Dec. 30 Formal letter to Mr. Vanderbilt about the Biltmore
Arboretum, outlining general matured scheme and
enclosing the announcement printed in the _Lyceum_
in 1891 regarding the Arboretum.

A list of the firm’s public clients includes the following
not mentioned by Mr. Olmsted in letters just
quoted: College of N. J. (Princeton), Wilmington
Park Commission, Trinity College, U. S. National
Zoological Park at Washington, and Kirkwood
Land Company, Atlanta.

1894: Reports, by Olmsted, Olmsted & Eliot, on Cambridge
parks and Charles River Embankment
printed.

Jan’y In Cincinnati on park work.

Feb’y Advising on Brooklyn Park. Last of the month
in Biltmore.

March Visited Chicago South Parks and Milwaukee en
route to Louisville. Wrote to J. C. O. that it is
very desirable to make the firm favorably known
in the South and “extend its connection.”

May Again in Biltmore.

Sep’r Advice to Town of Brookline “on main roads and
public reservations in that part of Brookline
bounded by Boylston St., Chestnut St., Goddard
Ave., and Clyde St.” (printed.)

Nov’r-Dec’r The Olmsted family at Biltmore.

1895: At Biltmore. The last of May he left with his
Feb’y-May family to come North, leaving his son F. L. O.,
Jr., as his professional representative.

Spring Portrait painted outdoors at Biltmore by John
Singer Sargent.

June-July In Brookline. Some fragments of manuscript on
the Hartford parks about this time were probably
his last professional writings except letters of
advice to F. L. O., Jr., at Biltmore in regard to the
Summer and Fall work there.

Aug’t-Oct’r At Deer Isle, Maine, the family’s summer home,
resting.

Sep’r Retired from professional practice.

Nov’r Sailed for England with Mrs. Olmsted, F. L. O.,
Jr., and Marion Olmsted.

Dec’r Wrote to F. L. O., Jr., in another part of England,
as to plants, deer, etc. for Biltmore. Shortly after
this his mind failed, after nearly forty years of
active professional work.

1903:
Aug. 28 Died.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] The entries marked “J. O.” are from the diary of his father, Mr.
John Olmsted, who kept a most careful and accurate record of the doings
and movements of his family.

[2] A full account of the dinner is given in Vol. 1 of _D. H.
Burnham_, by Charles Moore, Houghton Mifflin Co., 1921.

PART II. EARLY EXPERIENCES

THEIR CONTRIBUTION TO HIS LATER CAREER

PART II. EARLY EXPERIENCES

THEIR CONTRIBUTION TO HIS LATER CAREER

CHAPTER I

AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL PASSAGES

Of the early influences and experiences which contributed to Mr.
Olmsted’s unconscious preparation for his later professional practice,
we have fortunately a considerable record. Towards the close of
the seventies, when he was harried beyond measure by the New York
politicians, he set down some fragmentary autobiographical notes as the
first part of an intended book reviewing American social and political
conditions.

In a little prefatory note, he says:

... I offer a small contribution of individual experience towards
the history of the latter half of the first century of the American
republic,--the period in which the work of the railroad, the electric
telegraph, the ocean steamship, the Darwinian hypothesis, and of
Universal suffrage began; in which what is called the temperance
reformation and the abolition of slavery have occurred; in which
millions of people have been concentrating at New York, Philadelphia,
Boston, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Chicago, St. Louis, and San Francisco,
while rural neighborhoods in New England, Virginia, the Carolinas and
Georgia have been rapidly losing population and still more rapidly
losing various forms of wealth and worth.

The book was never written, but he preserved such pages of manuscript
as he found time to scribble off,--often at night when the strain of
his bitter fight for the right development of the Central Park left
him sleepless and when he turned with relief to the recollections of a
simple and harmonious social group.

PASSAGES IN THE LIFE OF AN UNPRACTICAL MAN

His teachers are the people, books, animals, plants, stones and earth
round about him.--PHILIP GILBERT HAMERTON.

My father was well fitted to live only in a highly organized community
in which man’s stint is measured out to him according to his strength.
As the world is going he was perhaps as fortunately placed in this
respect as he well could be. Yet the world was driving along so fast
that he lived in perplexity between his self-distrust and disposition
to acquit himself fully in his proper part, and the supposed demands of
Society, Religion and Commerce.

The affectations by which he aimed to hide his unreadiness were so
transparent and his real qualities had so little of brilliancy that he
passed with others, even with many of his friends, for a man of much
less worth, ability and attainments than he was.

If one had said to my father that he was highly sensitive to beauty he
would have straightened himself, coughed and bridled like a girl, in
the desire to accept flattery with becoming deprecation and admission.
And he would probably soon after try to justify the compliment by
referring admiringly to something which he thought had the world’s
stamp of beauty upon it, quite possibly something which, but for the
stamp, would be odious to him.

He rarely talked even in his family on matters at all out of the
range of direct and material domestic interests, and in a company
where lively conversation was going on, would sit silent and even
answer questions unfrankly and with evident discomfort. Yet though his
communion with others was never wordy, a decided companionship was
always necessary to his comfort, and his silence was never churlish.

His sensitiveness to the beauty of nature was indeed extraordinary,
judging from the degree in which his habits were affected by it; for he
gave more time and thought to the pursuit of this means of enjoyment
than to all other luxuries, and more than any man I have known who
could not and would not talk about it or in any way make a market of it.

My mother died while I was so young that I have but a tradition of
memory rather than the faintest recollection of her. While I was a
small schoolboy if I was asked if I remembered her I could say “Yes;
I remember playing on the grass and looking up at her while she sat
sewing under a tree.” I now only remember that I did so remember her,
but it has always been a delight to me to see a woman sitting under a
tree, sewing and minding a child.

My [step-]mother’s character was simpler than my father’s, but she also
had a strong love of nature and her taste was more cultivated and had
more of her own respect.

My father when a young man was fond of riding and before I could be
trusted alone on a horse was in the habit of taking me sitting on a
pillow before him. While still very young I rode by his side.

The happiest recollections of my early life are the walks and rides I
had with my father and the drives with my father and [step-]mother in
the woods and fields. Sometimes these were quite extended, and really
tours in search of the picturesque. Thus before I was twelve years
old I had been driven over the most charming roads of the Connecticut
Valley and its confluents, through the White Hills and along most of
the New England coast from the Kennebeck to the Naugatuck. We were
our own servants, my father seldom fully trusting strangers in these
journeys with the feeding, cleaning or harnessing of his horses. We
rested long in pleasant places; and when at noon we took the nags out
and fed them by the roadside, my father, brother and I would often
wander far looking for a bathing place and an addition of fresh wild
berries for the picnic dinner which my mother would have set out in
some well-selected shady place.

I had also before I was twelve traveled much with my father and mother
by stage coach, canal and steamboat, visiting West Point, Trenton
Falls, Niagara, Quebec, Lake George.

I recollect less of any enjoyment I may then have had than of my
impression of the enjoyment my father and mother constantly found in
scenery. Yet they could have talked little of it, both being of silent
habits; and I am sure that they did not analyze, compare and criticise.

These reflections rise naturally when I review the conditions of my
education, for although I was much separated from my father and few
men have less aptness, inclination or ability than he had to give oral
instruction, I see that the unpremeditated and insensible influence
which came to me from him was probably the strongest element in my
training. I see also that my father may have unwittingly disclosed
to me more of his nature than to any one else. One of two or three
incidents that remain in my mind will show what I mean. On a Sunday
evening we were crossing the meadows alone. I was tired and he had
taken me in his arms. I soon noticed that he was inattentive to my
prattle and looking in his face saw in it something unusual. Following
the direction of his eyes, I said: “Oh! there’s a star.” Then he said
something of Infinite Love with a tone and manner which really moved
me, chick that I was, so much that it has ever since remained in my
heart.

Brought up in a superstitious faith in preaching and didactic
instruction, and knowing how little he could by deliberate purpose do
for me in that way, my father’s affection and desire to “do right by
the boy” made him always eager to devolve as much as practicable of the
responsibility of my education upon ministers.

I was placed successively in charge of six ministers. That this was not
a choice of schoolmasters appears from the fact that while living with
three of them I was, with my father’s knowledge, sent out by them to
day schools--twice to the common school--and that only one himself gave
me regular instruction. In every case, too, I was for the most part
turned over for what is commonly called religious instruction to Sunday
school teachers,--that is to say, vain, ignorant and conceited big boys
and girls,--parrots or quacks at the business.

The first of these ministers, who became my father by deputy when I was
but six years old, was the pastor of a thoroughly rural parish. The
surface of the country was rugged, the soil, except in small patches,
poor; the farms consequently large and the settlement scattered; there
was one little general store at which the weekly mail was distributed;
there was no public house, but near the meetinghouse some cabins had
been built with fireplaces made of field stone in which families who
came from far could get warm and eat their snack between the Sunday
services. (I think Sunday was then called Sunday and that the fashion
of calling it Sabbath came in afterwards or had not yet reached this
place.)

The accumulation of results of labor in several generations was chiefly
conspicuous in the stone walls which divided the fields.

I suppose that the large family in which I lived, enjoyed more luxury
than any other, but I doubt if, one year with another, four hundred
dollars in money passed its hands. Every household, however, was
self-supporting and none so needy that it would not resent an offer
of gratuitous assistance unless it were in such neighborly kindness
as the poorest might offer the richest. There was a single family of
vagabond habits who sometimes came to the store and bartered small
peltry chiefly for tobacco and rum, and once when they had done so
betook themselves to a Sunday house and shut themselves up in it for
a deliberate drunk. But even this family which was distinguished and
prayed for as “the poor” kept up at least a profession of supporting
themselves honestly. They probably owned the cabin they lived in and a
small piece of mountain land about it. If not, I think they were the
only family that did not own some land and till it.

Every one made long days’ work; the parson was diligent and traveled
far every week on his pastoral duties. He worked with his own hands
a little farm from which the family living was helped out. He kept
a horse and cow. He entertained a good deal of company,--agents of
benevolent societies and traveling preachers as well as family friends,
parishioners and the families of neighboring ministers; but he had
no hired man servant and the only maid was a young girl, probably a
relative of his wife’s who often sat at the table with us and before I
left was married, perhaps to another minister. There was another pupil,
a big boy who was reading Greek with the parson and who paid for his
tutorship by helping in the farm work. On the parson’s little farm we
had cows and swine and sheep, turkeys, geese, fowls and bees. Besides
the commoner farm crops, we raised flax and spun it. We had an orchard
and sent apples to a neighboring cider mill. I remember seeing the
parson grafting scions into the trees. I remember also the beating a
pan when the bees swarmed, helping to pick the geese, helping to wash
the sheep, setting up the martin box, going with yarn to the weavers,
helping to make soap and to dip candles.

It seems to me that while I was here, though only six years old, I was
under no more constraint than a man; that I went where I liked, did
what I liked and, especially, that I had a hand in everything that was
going on in the neighborhood. When I saw other boys going barefoot, I
threw away my shoes and was no more required to wear them except on
Sundays. Every house, every room, every barn and stable, every shop,
every road and highway, every field, orchard and garden was not only
open to me but I was everywhere welcome. With all their hard-working
habits no one seemed to begrudge a little time to make life happy to
such a bothering little chap as I must have been. Such a thing as my
running into danger even from bad company would seem not to have been
thought of.

I remember very distinctly wandering off by myself in the evening to
the store and sitting there listening to such talk as happened; going
to look in at the window of the Sunday house to see the drunken poor
folks; going with boys to smoke out woodchucks from their burrows, to
get rabbits in winter out of stone walls, to trap mink in steel traps
and quail in figure-four traps. I remember going with rye to the grist
mill, riding on the sacks behind some man or bigger boy; going at night
to see a charcoal burning and then eating potatoes baked in ashes. I
am often reminded of the odor that filled the air. Spending a day and
night at a distant sugar camp and then sleeping in a wigwam of bark.
Making pastoral visits to sick people with uncle,--so I called him
though he was no family relation. I remember when a man came to say
that a sick child was dead, and to get the key of the meetinghouse. I
went with him and saw him strike three strokes on the iron triangle
which hung suspended by strips of cowhide from the beams of the belfry
by which the tidings were sent to all within hearing; and immediately
women began to come from all directions to show their sympathy to the
stricken parents. The loss of a single little child stirred every heart
in every household. We were dismissed early from school next day and
went to see the coffin made.

I remember seeing the boards stained with a red wash and varnished.
We saw the grave dug and helped to take out the bier and dingy pall
from the little house in the graveyard where they were kept. We walked
in the funeral procession. I remember the parson’s reading the usual
notice in meeting the next Sunday. “It having pleased God to remove
by death the infant child of Reuben and Rebecca Wilson, the afflicted
parents, with the aged grandmother, the surviving children and other
relatives ask the prayers of the congregation that this bereavement may
be blessed to their spiritual and eternal good.” As each class of the
mourners was designated, they stood up in their pew, and many of the
women looking on had tears in their eyes. I remember that I wondered
why uncle did not pray that the child should be raised at once and
brought back to her parents, and I tried it myself when I went to bed.

I remember being taken up by a sleighing party and driven far by
moonlight to a large house where I saw flip made by the kitchen fire;
saw the parson’s girl drink it and be merry; saw romping games played
around the great chimney and when finally I fell asleep, I was put to
bed to be taken home in the midst of a furious snowstorm in the bitter
morning by one of the boys who treated me to an upset in a snow-drift.

I don’t quite see how the people old and young--even the
drunkard--could be on such good terms with the parson as it seems to me
they were. I certainly have seen nothing like it since. I think that
the temperance reformation was just beginning and my uncle preached
and prayed in the meeting, in the school and in the family against
intemperance, but total abstinence was not yet insisted on. The
Anti-slavery agitation had not arisen. Divisions on these two questions
I understand were afterwards so bitter that half the congregation
refused to come to meeting or to contribute to the support of the
minister, who finally was obliged to ask for a dismissal on account of
the extreme privations to which his family became reduced.

I learned to read in a little brown schoolhouse on the bank of a brook
in the midst of the woods. I remember chestnut, hemlock, birch and
alder trees about it and near by thickets of mountain laurel. The brook
must have been a small one for we made a pool by damming it, into which
we put little trout and frogs that we caught with our hands, and from
which we filled the drink-water pail of the school. The ground was
strewn with rocks and the brook made a crooked way among them with
much babbling. I remember beds of fragrant mint along its banks and of
pennyroyal on the drier roadside. Here too, by an old stone fence we
drew out sassafras roots and in a marshy place at the foot of the hill
we pulled the sweetflag root from the black mire.

The narrow road passed on the other side of the schoolhouse and
sometimes, when wheels were heard approaching, our mistress would stop
short and cry: “Your elders are coming. Make your manners! Make your
manners!” and we hastened to stand in line at the roadside, the boys
to bow, the girls to courtesy. Even when at play and out of sight of
the schoolhouse the boys would stop and take off their hats if any much
older person came near. We were eager to do it, which perhaps is to be
accounted for by the fact that we saw so few people, and that no man
would be in such haste or so absorbed in other duties that he could not
acknowledge the courtesy and smile or say a pleasant word to us.

I was a favorite with the mistress. When she was married and was
starting for the Western Reserve in a chaise with a horse-hide trunk,
studded with brass nails, hung on behind, she stopped at our house to
see me. She cried a little when she kissed me. Did I cry also? I think
not.

I dimly recall much more that was quaint, and that it is harder to
believe in, of the habits and customs of the parish, but I recall
nothing that was not kindly or that I do not thoroughly respect.

One of the most incredible of my recollections is that of the serious
and respectful interest taken by all classes of the people in the
annual spring parade of the militia, and first that the drummer should
have come to the parson for advice as he did weeks beforehand in regard
to the drum head. Its renewal and the manner of it being determined,
I went with a squad to a distant currier’s where a sheep skin was
selected, bargained and paid for in seed potatoes. After it had been
prepared and mounted, the drummer and fifer practiced at the store
every night, Sundays excepted, until the day of the muster.

On the Sunday before, some of the officers appeared at meeting in
partial uniform. It was questioned at dinner whether this was a good
custom; whether it did not minister more to personal vanity than to any
good. The parson, however, regarded it as a suitable mark of respect to
the house of God and remarked that the military arm of the republic had
no strength except in its dependence on the Almighty. The approaching
occasion was remembered in his prayers.

When the day came and the long roll was beaten in front of the
meetinghouse, about fifty true yeomen[3] fell in and answered to their
names. Nearly all wore parts of what had once been uniforms. Very few
were without a black and red plume bound on the left side of their
hats. The privates all had muskets, but I have an impression that the
non-commissioned officers or some of them carried lances or halberds.
The commissioned officers were in full military suits, not that these
had been made to fit them, for I think that they had been obtained
for a consideration from their predecessors and dated back to the
last war. They had swords and enormous _chapeau bras_ with plumes and
also wore leather stocks and silk sashes. The company was drilled,
marched, counter-marched, dismissed for dinner, reassembled and, at
length, late in the day, a sergeant with a guard of honor was sent to
the parsonage and the minister escorted to the ground. On his arrival
he was duly saluted by the Company which then formed in hollow square,
the minister, commissioned officers, “music” and the Company flag in
the centre. The minister delivered a short discourse, made a long
prayer and, after being thanked by the Captain, was re-escorted to the
parsonage. There were few inhabitants of the parish, old or young,
who were not present at this ceremony, as many as possible standing,
men and boys with their hats removed, on the long wooden steps of the
meetinghouse at the foot of which the square had been formed.

The Company being again brought into line the Captain said a few words
of compliment, closing nearly as follows:

“You are now about to be dismissed for the day and I hope that nothing
will occur after the dismissal which will lessen the respect which your
exemplary conduct, while under military discipline, has been calculated
to inspire in the hearts of the ladies. I will only add that after the
dismissal I shall give a treat at the north Sunday house which you are
all heartily invited to partake of.” Here a private stepped out and
called for three cheers for Captain Fowler, which were given, the drum
rolling and the flag waving.

In the Sunday house, pitchers, glasses, and plates of crackers, cheese
and gingerbread were set out and under their influence, the earnestness
which had so far characterized the proceedings gave way to a certain
temperate degree of hilarity, forced and creaking.

After supper a drum and fife concert concluded the solemn patriotic
festival, the last piece performed being Old Hundred.

I do not know whether it was before or after this that I spent several
months with my uncle at Geneseo, where I remember being taken to see
Indians making baskets, to visit at a house in the dooryard of which
there was a fawn and at which a beautiful woman gave me sweetmeats, and
that I was sometimes driven rapidly and silently over the turf of the
bottom lands among great trees.

I was for months again the smallest boy among sixty at a boarding
school, where I was placed under the special care of another clergyman,
of whom I remember nothing after my father and mother drove away. Here
I suffered in many cruel ways, and I still carry the scars of more
than one kind of the wounds I received. I was taken away suddenly when
one of the big boys wrote to his father, who sent the letter to mine,
that a teacher had lifted me up by my ears and had so pinched one of
them that it bled. My father had not thought of taking me away when I
wrote--I think it must have been in my first letter to him--that there
had been a revival in the school; that I had experienced religion, that
I had had a prayer party in my bedroom to pray for his conversion and
that I wished him to read a certain tract, the title of which I forget.

After this I lived for six months or more at home. But home with
me had many branches, for there were no less than ten households
of grandparents, granduncles and uncles in which, for all that I
recollect, I was as welcome and intimate and as much at home as if
I had been born to them. My father’s grandfather had five sons, all
of whom had, I think, been seafaring men before the revolution. One
had sailed in a letter of marque, was taken prisoner and died in the
hulk at the Wallabout; another who was more successful than the rest
in acquiring wealth and honors was carried to a peaceful grave before
my day. Another was over ninety years old when I was born. I dimly
recollect him, living in a large, rambling old farm house, of which
he was the only occupant except his housekeeper. The fourth was also
over ninety when I rode his knee. He had served the young republic both
on sea and land and was the hero of a very daring and shrewd exploit,
having, with three American seamen and two negroes whom he compelled
to assist him, recaptured a valuable prize vessel on the high seas and
brought her safely in. They were all infirm from wounds and rheumatism
and I remember my grandfather out of his arm chair but once. He then
walked a little way with me in a warm spring day, supporting himself
with a long Malacca cane, which I now own, held with both hands.
Leaning against a fence he pointed out a hang-bird’s nest in one of a
row of elms near us and then told me that he had helped his father to
plant the trees, describing how small they were at the time. I wanted
my father to let me help him plant trees and he did, but they were not
placed with sufficient forecast and have since all been cut down. But
great-grandfather’s trees stand yet and the hang-birds yet have their
home in them.

Then I lived for a few months chiefly with my grandmother, going
irregularly to a village school, but being educated more I think
through some old novels, plays and books of travels that I found
in a sea chest in her garret. I actually read at this time much of
Zimmerman on _Solitude_, Sterne’s _Sentimental Journey_ and the _Vicar
of Wakefield_. I have the same volumes now, and I never have such a
puzzling sense of double life as when I see some of Coleman’s plays on
the stage.

I suppose these readings developed the talent which I must have
temporarily possessed two or three years later, when I could hire other
boys to do my chores by telling them stories,--no doubt but partially
of my own invention.

Then I spent nearly five years, vacations excepted, in the home of a
minister who undertook, with God’s help, to bring up four select pupils
in the fear of the Lord, making no distinction between them and his own
children. For their accommodation he had bought and moved a small, old
country store alongside the parsonage proper, in the cellar of which
he stowed cabbages and roots, on the ground floor had a work-shop and
harness room, and in the second story the boys’ beds, desks and benches.

The clapboards were warped and shackling and the winter pressed us
hard. The heating apparatus was a sheet-iron stove, if I am not
mistaken made by the parson himself. The parson’s salary was nominally
$500 a year but the people being poor and money scarce he took much of
it in “produce”--firewood, for instance, which was invariably delivered
when the sledding was good and mostly in logs. As soon as winter came,
the duty was put on me to keep up the fire one day in four, and to
provide wood I had to cut and split these logs, using a beetle and
wedges for the larger ones; then carry the wood to the school and up
stairs--all in play-time--make the fire before day and keep it up till
bedtime. I was eight years old and small of my age.

The parsonage had a small back kitchen in which there was a wooden
sink; outside the door stood an open water butt with a spigot at the
bottom. After we had dressed by lamplight in the morning and perhaps
broken a path through the snow to “the other house,” we opened the back
kitchen door and in turn drew water in a cast-iron skillet about six
inches in diameter out of which with the aid of home-made soft soap,
held at a corner of the sink in a gourd, we washed our hands and faces.
A roller towel hung upon the wall for the use of all the family. On
Saturday night, hot water was furnished us and we were expected to wash
our ears, neck and feet. Our meals were eaten in the kitchen and here,
on the bare floor, we twice a day kneeled in prayers.

The parson’s son, a weakly boy who afterwards died of consumption,
lived in the house with the family. The four boarder boys had the
“store” all to themselves except in school hours.

They were kept in order in this way: At irregular intervals, when they
were expected to be studying their lessons, the parson came to the
foot of the stairs, took off his shoes, crept softly up and stood with
his ear at the latch. If there was no disorder, he slipped down again
and we perhaps knew nothing of his visit. If I was telling a story--my
stories were generally of “run-aways”--the parson waited until I
reached a situation of interest, when he would break in shouting
“Oh! the depravity of human nature!” and seizing a ruler, a stick of
firewood or a broom handle, go at us all pellmell over the head and
shoulders.

* * * * *

A later biographical fragment, probably written in the nineties,
carries on the story of Mr. Olmsted’s education.

FOOTNOTES:

[3] Mr. Olmsted was fond of the word “yeoman.” This was the signature
he used for his Southern letters to the Times.

HINTS

AIDFUL TO ELEMENTARY SELF-EDUCATION IN

DESIGN

IN THE COMMON FIELDS OF LANDSCAPE GARDENING PROPER.

BY F. L. O.

Honorary Member of the American Institute of Architects and of the
Boston Society of Architects; Author of a Journey in Texas, etc.

PREFACE

Something accrues from special attention continuously directed for many
years to a particular field of observation and reflection, giving a
value to counsel about it that would not be allowed on the ground of
native talent or learning on the part of the counsel-giver.

Partly for this reason I propose, by way of introduction, to give at
this point some account of my life.

But partly also I propose to do so from regard to a disposition
generally prevalent to underrate the value of professional or bookish
counsel on the subject of this book. This disposition grows largely out
of an impression that the courses by which men come to set themselves
up as professional advisers on this subject or to write books upon
it are, like those of students in a school, of a kind to withdraw
them in a great degree from nature and from the ordinary life of men,
consequently from a ready, sympathetic understanding of their wants;
that these courses tend to pervert their natures, lessen freedom of
mind, restrain healthy impulses and make them creatures of rules and
conventions. This impression is the deeper because of the influence
unconsciously acting from an old idea associated with the word garden,
the essence of gardening having been withdrawal from nature and
restriction to artificial conditions. (_Garden_, _girdle_ and _girth_
are from the same root--signifying constraint.) A Gardener is thought
of as a man working in accommodation to artificial restrictions.

Many times something expressive of this idea has been plainly said to
me or possibly said of me and of my advice and work. Hundreds of times
a prejudice of mind of this nature has been apparent in those seeking
my counsel.

I hope the slight account I propose to give of myself may cause what is
to follow after it to be read with less prejudice of this kind than it
might otherwise be.

I can see that my pleasure began to be affected by conditions of
scenery at an early age,--long before it could have been suspected by
others from anything that I said and before I began to mentally connect
the cause and effect of enjoyment in it. It occurred too, while I was
but a half-grown lad, that my parents thought well to let me wander as
few parents are willing their children should.

Within thirty miles of where they lived there were a score of houses
of their kindred and friends at which I was always welcome. They were
mostly farm houses and had near them interesting rivers, brooks,
meadows, rocks, woods or mountains, those less rural had pleasant old
gardens. Of the people two only shall be referred to particularly. One
a poor scholar who, after a deep affliction, lived in seclusion with no
occupation but that of reading good old books to which he had formed an
attachment in happier days. One of his favorite authors was Virgil, and
he took pleasure in reading and translating him to me. He was quaintly
mild, courteous and ceremonious, of musing, contemplative habits, and
in these and other respects so different from most men whom I knew
that, as he commanded my respect and affectionate regard, I recognize
him to have had a notable influence in my education.

The other had inherited a moderate competence and been brought up to
no regular calling. He lived in an unusually fine old village house
with an old garden, was given to natural science, had a cabinet, a few
works of art and a notable small library. He was shy and absorbed and
I took little from him directly, but he was kind and not so careful
of his treasures that I could not cautiously use them as playthings
and picture books. He introduced me to Isaac Walton. He had no man
servant,--indeed no servants, his handmaids being of the order then
called help, and he was on precisely the terms with them, as it now
seems to me, that he might have been with helpful sisters, though they
did not sit at table with him.

A man came from without the household for the heavier work of the
place, giving but a small part of his time to it, and there was a boy
to do the light chores who received no wages but worked for his board,
books and schooling. One of the boys who thus became my playfellow
afterwards made his way through college, studied law, and came to be a
member of Congress and Governor of a State.

For the rest my kinsmen and friends were plain, busy, thrifty people,
mostly farmers and good citizens.

If in my rambling habits I did not come home at night, it was supposed
that I had strayed to some of these other homes where I would be well
taken care of, and little concern was felt at my absence; but it
several times occurred before I was twelve years old that I had been
lost in woods and finding my way out after sunset had passed the night
with strangers and had been encouraged by my father rather than checked
in the adventurousness that led me to do so.

It was my good fortune also at this period to be taken on numerous
journeys in company with people neither literary, scientific nor
artistic, but more than ordinarily susceptible to beauty of scenery and
who with little talking about it, and none for my instruction, plainly
shaped their courses and their customs with reference to the enjoyment
of it. As a small boy I made four such journeys, each of a thousand
miles or more, two behind my father’s horses, and two mostly by stage
coach and canal boat. Besides these many shorter ones. When fourteen I
was laid up by an extremely virulent sumach poisoning, making me for
some time partially blind, after which, and possibly as a result, I
was troubled for several years with a disorder of the eyes, and the
oculists advised that I should be kept from study.

It followed that, at the time my schoolmates were entering college,
I was nominally the pupil of a topographical engineer[4] but really
for the most part given over to a decently restrained vagabond life,
generally pursued under the guise of an angler, a fowler or a dabbler
on the shallowest shores of the deep sea of the natural sciences.

A hardly conscious exercise of reason in choosing where I should rest
and which way I should be going in these vagrancies, a little musing
upon the question what made for or against my pleasure in them, led me
along to a point at which when by good chance the books fell in my way
I was sufficiently interested to get some understanding of what such
men as Price, Gilpin, Shenstone and Marshall thought upon the subject.

Rural tastes at length led me to make myself a farmer. I had several
years of training on widely separated farms, then bought a small farm
for myself which I afterwards sold in order to buy a larger, and upon
this I lived ten years. I was a good farmer and a good neighbor, served
on the school committee, improved the highways, was secretary of a
local farmer’s club and of the County Agricultural Society, took prizes
for the best crops of wheat and turnips and the best assortment of
fruits, imported an English machine, and in partnership with a friend
established the first cylindrical drainage tile works in America.

But during this period also I managed to make several long and numerous
short journeys, generally paying my expenses by writing on rural
topics for newspapers. As it would have been an extravagance otherwise,
however, I first crossed the Atlantic in the steerage of a sailing
vessel, and nearly always traveled frugally. In all these tours I took
more interest than most travelers do in the arrangement and aspect of
homesteads and generally in what may be called the sceneric character
of what came before me.

The word _sceneric_ flows from my pen unbidden and I venture to let
it stand. Some writers of late are using _scenic_ for the purpose it
serves, but this is confusing, _scenic_ having been so long used with
regard exclusively to affairs of the drama.

All this time interest in certain modest practical applications of
what I was learning of the principles of landscape architecture was
growing with me,--applications, I mean, for example, to the choice of a
neighborhood, of the position and aspect of a homestead, the placing,
grouping and relationships with the dwelling of barns, stables and
minor outbuildings, the planning of a laundry yard and of conveniences
for bringing in kitchen supplies and carrying away kitchen wastes,
for I had found that even in frontier log cabins a good deal was lost
or gained of pleasure according to the ingenuity and judgment used in
such matters; applications also to the seemly position of a kitchen
garden, of a working garden for flowers to be cut for the indoor
enjoyment of them, to fixed outer floral and foliage decorations, to
the determination of lines of outlook and of in-look and the removal
or planting accordingly of trees, screens, hedges, windbreaks and so
on, with some consideration of unity of foreground, middle ground and
background, some consideration for sceneric effect from without as
well as from within the field of actual operations. I planted several
thousand trees on my own land and thinned out and trimmed with my own
hand with reference to future pleasing effects a small body of old
woodland and another of well-grown copse wood.

Never the slightest thought till I was more than thirty years old had
entered my mind of practicing landscape gardening except as any fairly
well-to-do, working farmer may, and in flower gardening or of any kind
of decorative or simply ornamental gardening--any gardening other than
such as I have indicated--I was far from being an adept.

But I gradually came to be known among my neighbors and friends as
a man of some special knowledge, inventiveness and judgment in such
affairs as I have mentioned, and to be called on for advice about
them. At length, growing out of such little repute, I was unexpectedly
invited to take a modest public duty and from this by promotions
and successive unpremeditated steps was later led to make Landscape
Architecture my calling in life....

I have since, partly on professional and partly on other occasions,
continued to travel a great deal.... But a small part of my journeyings
either in the old or the new world have been made by railways. I have
traveled several thousand miles on foot and several thousand in the
saddle and I have had rare opportunities for seeing people of all sorts
in all parts of our land in their homes.

All the time interest in scenery, landscape, landscape architecture,
has been strong with me.

Through these causes and because of the interest I have thus explained
I have been much led into pointed conversations with men and women
under a great variety of circumstances, while looking about their
abodes or while following their chosen paths, roads and waters, with
regard to the pleasure to be had in doing so and with direct reference
to means of enhancing it or getting the better of circumstances
restricting it.

FOOTNOTES:

[4] According to his father’s diary, Frederick began the study of
engineering with Professor Barton of Andover, Mass., November 20, 1837.

CHAPTER II

EARLY PLEASURE TOURS

In connection with the tours for the enjoyment of scenery which young
Frederick Olmsted made, generally with his parents, it is perhaps
interesting to record in detail one taken in 1838, when he was sixteen.
His father, Mr. John Olmsted, kept an accurate diary, and in this we
find noted: “Journey to White Mountains,” “in our double carriage,”
“self, wife, Fredk. and John,” Aug. 8-25, 1838. The itinerary reads:

“Springfield, Mt. Holyoke, Northampton, Whateley, Deerfield (old
houses), Bloody Brook, Greenfield, Bernardstown, Brattleboro, Putney
Hills, Walpole, Bellows Falls, Charleston, Claremont, Windsor, Hanover
(view of river from hill), Orford, Haverhill (N. H.), Newbury (Vt.),
Oxbow Narrows, Bath, Franconia Notch, Mt. Lafayette, Littleton, Fabyan,
Crawford Notch, Conway, Center Harbor, Lake Winnipesaukee, Red Mt.,
Wolfboro, Rochester, Great Falls, Dover, Portsmouth, Newburyport,
Haverhill, Andover, Lynn, Nahant, Boston.”

In Boston there is a note: “Navy Yard, Bunker Hill, Mt. Auburn,
Athenæum,” Aug. 22 “F. to Andover.”

Frederick’s voyage to China before the mast in 1843 gave little
opportunity for pleasure sightseeing, and while lying in the ports of
Canton and Hongkong,--if we may judge from the few notes he has left
about this experience,--he was naturally most interested in the people
and their strange customs and their attitude towards “heathen” visitors.

There are two of Frederick’s letters relating to trips in the summer of
1845.

GLEN FALLS (N. Y.), Aug. 3, 1845.

DEAR FATHER: or whoever is at home, if Father has gone to Saratoga:

I believe the only description of the country between here and
Burlington I have given you was in a pencil letter written at
Charlotte. The afternoon’s ride of that day was through a very poor
country, clay and stones. What land had been cleared seemed to be
principally devoted to the raising of burnt stumps and mullen; some
little grass, to be sure did now and then make its appearance, but I
should think the poor sheep would find it hard work enough to live,
without troubling themselves with growing wool. A little ways out
of Charlotte, though, I recollect I was met by one of the finest
views I had ever seen. It was on a hill which overlooked the country
and the lake towards the southwest. Between me and the Lake lay
some pretty village or other on the ground sloping towards it, the
land looking really very rich,--and by the way the soil just by the
lake all along is fine. Beyond lay the Lake itself,--bays, islands,
etc.,--looking beautifully; but the chief charm was the background, a
heap of mountains over in Essex Co. I never saw mountains rise more
beautifully one above another, the larger ones seeming to cluster
round and protect the smaller, nor did the summer veil of haze
ever sit on them more sweetly. Back of all rose some magnificent
thunder-heads and they rose fast too, compelling me at five o’clock to
take refuge and toast and eggs in a little road-side inn.

“HARTFORD, Sept. 1, 1845.

“MY DEAR FRED [KINGSBURY][5]:

Charley and I had a fine cruise ’round. Charley wanted to get home
before Emma left, and we drove, with all night sleeping in a boat
or on the ground, and one night on a sloop’s transom. Sunday night
we camped out at Haddam, below. Made a sq. sail of our tent, and
turned in on a blanket under it. It was a most beautiful place, a
green grassy dell glen sloping gently up, lofty and picturesque
trees opening a way for it back to a most lovely vista. A most
charming prospect of our Rhine in front and on either side. Lots of
wild pigeons, meteors, owls, sturgeons, mosquitoes, wipporwills,
methodists, and hydrophious quadrupeds to lull us to grassy sleep. We
struck our tent and broke up camp at an hour or two before day break,
and were till noon working up to the landing a few miles above. I
believe you will think we didn’t do much at Mineralogizing. We went
with John and Rev. Mr. Gilbert to the mines--a rocky hillside, and
in an hour or two got a pocket full of tourmalines, garnites and
something else (?) and appetites and a glass of brandy for my cholic,
because we were too lazy to kindle a fire Sunday morning and eat green
apples to kill-hunger....

Both Frederick Olmsted and his brother were fond of boating, and, in
their small sail-boat, had many trips on the Connecticut River and in
the Sound, especially during the family’s summer visits to Sachem’s
Head. In spite of the harshness of his experiences on the Chinese
voyage, Mr. Olmsted retained his fondness for ships and was wont to
hold up the clipper ship as the ideal of beauty in perfect organization
for use.

There is also a reminiscence jotted down in Mr. Olmsted’s later days of
a trip to Canada in 1846.

[Illustration: The Five Friends in New Haven Days

Charles Trask Frederick J. Kingsbury John Hull Olmsted

Charles Loring Brace Frederick Law Olmsted]

Once on a time my father took me with him on a journey which carried
us into Canada. While there we had for several days as a traveling
companion an Englishman, animated, amiable, frank and engaging. As I
think of our intercourse now, I can see plainly that he looked upon me
as a new specimen and was drawing me out and turning me over with the
interest of a naturalist. It is clear also that he got some new ideas
from me and often when our conversation was interrupted, he took
notes. My experience with men in America, though I was a youngster,
had been various, and I was then fresh from association with a large
number of youngsters,--youngsters merely, but gathered from all parts
of the Union. With these I had been made intimate at foot ball and
boat club, in long walks, trouting excursions, duck shooting, long
winter night talks over the stove and more formal debates of our
“Society.” My experience of mankind and my views of men were crude
and bigoted, but they were obviously sincere and simple convictions
and they were as strange to the Englishman as average English
country-gentlemen’s convictions would surely be to me.

FOOTNOTES:

[5] This letter, written to one of his chums, refers to a sailboat
trip from New Haven to Hartford, with Charles Loring Brace, another
of the group of five young men formed during the New Haven days (John
Hull and F. L. Olmsted, Charles Trask, and the two just mentioned). In
a reminiscent letter Frederick Olmsted says of Charles Brace: “We had
many long tramps together; I remember once being with him for a week
or two on a walk which took us through Litchfield, Stockbridge and
Lenox. I remember also vividly a fine run of fourteen miles on skates,
ending in a cold bath. He entered college with my brother and they were
room-mates; and, as for four years afterwards I lived in or near New
Haven, and was, a part of the time, attending the same lectures with
them, we continued to be in close intimacy.”

CHAPTER III

STUDY AND READING

Again in the nineties, when Mr. Olmsted was thinking over and
analyzing his early experiences in their effect on his subsequent
professional work, there is a letter to an old friend, a lady, which
shows especially his turn of mind in youth and some of his self-chosen
readings:

I am thinking that of all the young men you know, I was the least
likely to do what I have, and that you cannot know or guess in what
way I was led to it. Nor can you know what is most prominently in my
mind when I refer to these doings. I need not conceal from you that
I am sure that the result of what I have done is to be of much more
consequence than any one else but myself supposes. As I travel, I
see traces of influences spreading from it that no one else would
detect, which if given any attention by others, would be attributed to
“fashion.” There are, scattered through the country, seventeen large
public parks, many more smaller ones, many more public or semi-public
works, upon which, with sympathetic partners or pupils, I have been
engaged. After we have left them, they have, in the majority of
cases, been more or less barbarously treated, yet as they stand, with
perhaps a single exception, they are a hundred years ahead of any
spontaneous public demand, or of the demand of any notable cultivated
part of the people. And they are having an educative effect perfectly
manifest to me--a manifestly civilizing effect. I see much indirect
and unconscious following of them. It is strange how often I am asked:
“Where did you get that idea?” as if an original idea on the subject
had not been expected. But I see in new works of late much evidence
of effects of invention--comprehensive design; not always happy, but
symptomatically pleasing. Then I know that I shall have helped to
educate in a good American school a capital body of young men for my
profession,--all men of liberal education and cultivated minds. I know
that in the minds of a large body of men of influence I have raised
my calling from the rank of a trade, even of a handicraft, to that of
a liberal profession, an art, an art of design. I have been resolute
in insisting that I am not to be dealt with as a mere agent of my
clients, but as a councillor, a trustee, _on honor_. I have always
refused to take employment on other terms, and when it has appeared
that I must do so or yield the point, I have seven times already
resigned the charge of important and interesting works. It is what I
have done in these respects, and what I see of the indirect effect on
the standing of my profession and the progress of my art, that leads
me to write to you after so many years, in the self-complacent way
that I do. This, rather than anything you have seen, or of which you
have read.

I was saying that of the young men, comradic young men, that you knew,
I was the last to have been expected to lead such a life as I have.
I was strangely uneducated,--mis-educated. Because of an accident
putting my eyes in some peril, I was at the most important age left to
“run wild,” and when at school, mostly as a private pupil in families
of country parsons of small, poor parishes, it seems to me that I was
chiefly taught how not to study,--how not to think for myself. I tried
to learn Euclid by rote, without trying to understand what it meant.
While my mates were fitting for college, I was allowed to indulge my
strong natural propensity for roaming afield and day dreaming under
a tree. The year before John entered college, I went to sea before
the mast. It was soon after my return from China that I first met you
and you lifted me a good deal out of my constitutional shyness and
helped more than you can think to rouse a sort of scatter-brained
pride and to make me realize that my secluded life, country breeding,
and mis-education were not such bars to an “intellectual life” as I
was in the habit of supposing. Or, if this is too personal, let me
say that, through visiting at your house the first winter I was at
New Haven with John, I was given a turn, not to study, but toward an
“intellectual life” to which I feel that nearly all that I have been
saying complacently of my doings is to be remotely attributed. You
will smile of my thinking of you at all as a mentor, especially in a
literary way, if you remember a certain Christmas present that you
gave me: (It was burned thirty years afterwards with some heirlooms,
autograph letters of Washington and Webster and other treasures).
But in some way in which you had to do, I was led up at that time to
Emerson, Lowell and Ruskin, and other real prophets who have been
familiar friends ever since. (Here they are on my bed-table). And
these gave me the needed respect for my own constitutional tastes and
an inclination to poetical refinement in the cultivation of them that
afterwards determined my profession. Yet that is not quite fair, for I
had had two lifts in the same direction before. One, when I had heard
my father reading the books of travel in New England of President
Dwight, Professor Silliman and Miss Martineau, in all of which the
observations on scenery with which I was familiar had helped to make
me think that the love of nature, not simply as a naturalist but as a
poet loves it, was respectable. The other, when, yet a boy, I found
in the Hartford Public Library certain books, which it is a strange
thing that I should have looked into; stranger that I should have
assimilated as much as, when re-reading them perhaps twenty years
afterwards, I found that I had. They were Price on the _Picturesque_
and Gilpin on _Forest Scenery_,--books of the last century, but which
I esteem so much more than any published since, as stimulating the
exercise of judgment in matters of my art, that I put them into the
hands of my pupils as soon as they come into our office, saying,
“You are to read these seriously, as a student of law would read
Blackstone.”

Of Mr. Olmsted’s early reading we have several accounts in letters
written at the time.

There is a letter to Fred. Kingsbury in which Fred. Olmsted enumerates
“Books to Read.”

MORAL PHILOS: “Butler’s Sermons,” (recommended by Dr. Chalmers,
Sir James Mackintosh, Arnold, Pycroft and others). In place of
it, “Sewell’s Chstn. Morals”; “Abercrombie’s Philos. of Moral
Feeling” (brief and comprehensive); “Foster’s Essay on Decision
of Character.” MENTAL PHILOS: “Abercrombie on the Intellectual
Powers, and the Investigation of Truth”; “Combe’s Constitution.”
POLITICAL PHILOS: “Miss Martineau’s Tales,” (I suppose they are to
Polit. Philos. similar to Historic Novels to History); “Whately”
[Richard]; “M’Culloch’s Principles”; “The Encyclopedia” (Rent,
tax, etc.); “Jefferson”; “The Federalist, etc.”; ART: “Abstract of
Sir Josh. Reynolds’ discourses”; “Abstract of Pilkington’s Lives
of Painters”--(Visit collection in compy. with an artist); “Allan
Cunningham’s British Painters”--Sculpture--Encyclopedia. BRITISH
HISTORY: “Socy. for Prom. Chstn. Knowledge”; “Miller’s Life of George
III”; “Lives of George IV and Wm. IV”; “History of British India”;
“Basil Hall”; “Macaulay.”

I say nothing about Poetry or Fiction or Ecclesiastical Literature.
I’ve read enough already to choose from to read over again without
going wrong, and I presume I can read back to better advantage than I
can read ahead. I say nothing either about Agriculture or Law--I have
a course in each laid out. I expect to read on Geology, Mineralogy,
and Anatomy before long and Nat’l History generally as I have
opportunity or inclination.

I’ll thank you to give me any advice suggested to you in reading
the above. I have left out “Cobbett’s Grammar,” “Whately’s Rhetoric
and Logic.” I have read “Burke on Taste” and your Rept. of Prof.
Lardner’s Lecture. I should like to find more of those comprehensive
Lectures on such subjects. Prof. Lardner’s Lectures are brief and
comprehensive and very well adapted to give a simple man a common
information in regard to Natural Science and Mechanics. You must have
been bored with this letter but I expect you to answer it becomingly.

It must have been earlier than this that he attended with Charles Brace
“a private course of lectures on architecture.”

From 1845, Mr. Olmsted’s main study centered in agriculture. From
“Fairmount,” Mr. Geddes’s farm, he wrote to his father June 16, 1846:
“_Farmer’s Lib._ &c I received Monday. I am glad they are going to
publish the _Book of the Farm_ next. I had hoped they would. It is a
cheap way of getting it. English price is I think $20.”

Again on Aug. 12, 1846, he wrote:

I have been looking for a letter from you and the _Monthly Journal_
for two or three days. I am anxious to hear about the Head Farm. If
the _Farmer’s Library_ can be had separately at half subscription
price, I would drop the _Monthly Journal_ though it is very good, in
favor of Drs. Emmons and Prime’s _Quarterly Journal of Agriculture and
Science_, a very able, practical, scientific, periodical, $1.50.

I have thought of writing an article about Fuller’s Farming, etc.
for the _Cultivator_, but have given it up because I have not myself
sufficient reliance on the correctness of statements.

The same year he wrote to Fred. Kingsbury: “I am reading now everything
on Horticulture and Pears and Arnold’s life and correspondence--I
always loved Arnold--and pears.”

From Guilford, Connecticut, February 16, 1847, Frederick wrote his
brother John: “Tell Father I want the _Horticulturist_, etc. Nothing
here but the _Boston Cultivator_.”

On a visit to New York City in October, 1847, he mentioned spending a
forenoon “at Colman’s,” who has “a beautiful new portfolio of sketches
in Holland and Belgium, mostly interiors. They are very fine” ...
“lots of fine things of course--two finer than I ever saw of Landseer”
... “I bought a number of books, cheaply at the auctions.”

After his father purchased for him the farm on Staten Island, he began
to think of a rounded-out collection of his own. We find him writing
to his brother: “There are a lot of books that are essential to even a
common library--or a country tavern parlor--that I have not got. Such
buy if you can, without fail.”

The young farmer thought also of decorating his walls, and wrote to his
father about pictures (March 9, 1848): “You said I could have a lot
out of the portfolios; I should be exceedingly glad if you could spare
me some frames.” The “portfolios” doubtless included the one which Mr.
Olmsted referred to later in life in a reminiscent jotting:

The first portfolio of prints that I ever saw was a possession of my
childhood and was a series of views of English park scenery. Chance
soon after put in my hand Gilpin’s _Forest Scenery_ and Gilpin’s and
Marshall’s _Tours_ and criticisms of parks. I have been studying the
subject ever since.

In February, 1849, Frederick mentioned in a letter to his brother John
that he had been reading and discussing _Modern Painters_, for which he
always continued to have a high regard. Later in the month he referred
to one of the subjects in which he was then principally interested
as “Landscape Beauty and the Beauty of all Nature.” His tastes were
varied, for he mentioned also several other miscellaneous subjects
including the “Theory of Language” and the “Theory, Economy, etc. of
Love.”

On his English tour in 1850 he acquired a number of works on
agriculture and gardening, of which unfortunately we have no specific
record; and after his return he wrote over to one of his travelling
companions Charles Brace, still abroad: “I want you to get or order in
London in addition to what I asked previously: _Morton on Soils_ (up to
$2.), _Hutchinson on Spring Draining_ (not over $2.), _Hewit Davis on
Thin Sowing_ (a pamphlet), Prof Johnstone’s _Tables of Experiments in
Agriculture_ (a pamphlet, very important).”

Mr. Olmsted’s own book _Walks and Talks_ came out in 1852. On a bill
(1852) from G. P. Putnam & Co., Publishers and Importers, including
several copies of _Walks and Talks_ evidently purchased for gifts,
are listed also: “1 Pencil Sketches,” “1 Smith’s Parks and Pleasure
Grounds,” “1 Am. Farmer,” “1 Caird’s Agriculture,” “1 Miniature Fruit
Garden,” and “1 Agricultural Survey.”

It is a great pity that the library collected by Mr. Olmsted during his
career as a farmer and later as a writer, and during the first years of
his work as a landscape architect, was practically all burned in the
winter of 1863-64 after his departure for California. Regarding this
calamity, he wrote a friend:

“Since I left New York all my household goods including a library with
a number of rare technical books which I got in Europe and can never
replace have been destroyed by fire.”

The books were stored at the Staten Island farm in an outbuilding,
thought to have been maliciously fired.

CHAPTER IV

FARMING

Following his taste for outdoor life, and with the approval of his
father, Frederick Olmsted determined to become a farmer at the time his
brother was determining on a doctor’s career if his health permitted.
It was through their friend Frederick Kingsbury that Frederick Olmsted
was directed to the farm of Mr. Joseph Welton in Waterbury, where he
began the serious study of agriculture in May, 1845.[6]

In June of that year he wrote to Charles Brace from Waterbury:

For myself I have every reason to be satisfied with my prospects. I
grow more contented or more fond of my business every day,--really,
for a man that has any inclination for agriculture, the occupation is
very interesting, and if you look closely you will be surprised to
see how much honorable attention and investigation is being connected
with it. The _Cultivator_ has now five regular monthly European
correspondents. Scientific men of highest distinction are there
devoting their undivided attention to its advance; and I think here,
the coming year will show a remarkable progress.

A day or two later Frederick wrote his brother John:

For my part I believe that our farmers are, and have cause to be, the
most contented men in the world; and for the matter of profit, it is
sufficient to know that they live and bring up their families in
what they consider comfortable circumstances, with the usual system
and management. I should think by the use of the proper tools and
machinery which a man of intelligence and information could procure
and invent, at least half of the most disagreeable and hard labor
of our old-fashioned farmers might be dispensed with to advantage.
But I doubt whether taste for its peculiar pleasures, or inclination
or ability for its manual exertions, will make you a farmer. If
you could, however,--and of this you are the best judge,--become
interested in its operations for a year or two, and connect yourself
with its present rapid advance as an honorable and learned profession,
you would not only find it a sufficient means of support, but an
agreeable and healthful pursuit.

From notices in farm journals, such as the _Cultivator_, Frederick
Olmsted was led to select the farm of Mr. George Geddes called
“Fairmount,” near Owego, N. Y., as the place to pursue further his
apprenticeship in agriculture, since Mr. Geddes[7] had been awarded
first prize for the best-ordered farm in New York State.

On March 19, 1846, Frederick wrote to his brother from Hartford:

I shall start I think directly after the election, I presume going to
Albany first, and then on west to Syracuse, etc., with letters from
Mr. Norton and Tucker of the _Cultivator_. Father has obtained 15
new subscribers for the _Cultivator_ here.[8] Perhaps, and I should
prefer to, come per New Haven and N. Y. and first with Professor O’s
letter to Owego. Please do say what you think about it. I should like
to make you a visit again before I go for good and I shall probably
spend next winter on [the] farm.

In June he wrote to Frederick Kingsbury from “Fairmount”:

I want to make myself useful in the world, to make others happy, to
help to advance the condition of Society, and hasten the preparation
for the Millennium, as well as other things too numerous to mention.

Now, how shall I prepare myself to exercise the greatest and best
influence in the situation of life I am likely to be placed in. You
know perhaps as well as I what that is--I suppose it’s not very great
stretch of ambition to anticipate my being a Country Squire in Old
Connecticut in the course of fifteen years. I should like to help then
as far as I could [to foster] in the popular mind generosity, charity,
taste and etc.,--independence of thought of voting and of acting.
The education of the _ignoble vulgus_ ought to be much improved and
extended.

The Agricultural Interest greatly preponderates in number and wealth
in the state, but perhaps has the least influence in Legislation.
Lawyers whose sense of right and truth is blunted by profession--the
sense of law--and traffickers who value themselves as they can make
their own interest appear--whether truly or not--the interest of
another, make our laws, make public opinion, because they have had
their intellectual faculties sharpened by practice and education. Now
the people-farmers and mechanics--the producing classes that the rest
live on--want to think and judge for themselves, to cultivate the
intellectual.

There is happily a reminiscence written by Mrs. Frederick Law Olmsted
in 1920[9] of her husband’s establishment on his own farm at Staten
Island and of the meeting of the Olmsted and Perkins families.

“In the summer of 1847 Mr. John Olmsted of Hartford, Conn., was
staying, with his family, at the Sachem’s Head Hotel where he met
Mr. John Bowne of New York. Mr. Bowne’s wife was the daughter of Dr.
Akerly late of Staten Island, whose family were desirous of selling
the farm left by Dr. Akerly. Mr. Olmsted and his son Frederick, being
dissatisfied with the prospect for success in the small farm at
Guilford, bought not long before for Frederick, accepted Mr. Bowne’s
invitation to go to Staten Island, South Side, and inspect the Akerly
farm. Their impression was so favorable that Mr. Olmsted bought the
place, 130 acres, paying for it $12,000.00 and took possession the
following winter. The farm stretched from the Main Road to the shore
of Prince’s Bay about a mile in length.

“Leaving the main road one entered a very pretty wood of trees of fair
size,--oaks, maples, sweet and sour gum, sassafras, holly, etc. After
about a quarter of a mile one came out upon the cleared land on the
top of a small rise. The soil was heavy red clay, very suitable for
wheat, etc., yielding up to 40 bushels per acre. There was a sort of
plateau from which the land sloped gently down for about quarter of a
mile and then an almost level stretch went to the bank six feet above
the beach. From all this part of the farm there was a fine view of
Prince’s Bay looking across to Sandy Hook (slightly foreshortened),
Navesink, and the New Jersey Hills stretching away to the southward.
There were no trees on this level with the exception of one tall old
pear tree at the foot of which were found from time to time the bones
of the slaves who had been buried there....

“The farm commanded a view of all shipping outward or inward bound....

“The house, standing at the foot of the slope, was built of rough
stone plastered over with lime, and had been, until shortly before
Dr. Akerly’s death, only a story and a half high. He had, in order
to accommodate his growing family of grand-children built on in
wood a full story and a half, giving nine bed chambers. Outside the
junction of the stone and wood was disguised by the roof of an all
round piazza. Inside the effect was rather odd for the stone wall a
foot and a half thick came up nearly three feet and on top of it were
built closets convenient, but queer. Downstairs was an entrance hall
of 12 × 16 feet going through from east to west and on each side a 16
ft. square room with tolerably high ceiling, windows with deep seats
looking east and in one room a window looking south either side of the
fireplace.

“On the south end, the ground sloped so that there was an easy
entrance for barrows to the cellar, large and well lighted, and used
as a dairy. There was a small outbuilding north of the house where was
found a breast plate engraved ‘The King’s American Dragoon’s,’ laid
away on a beam in what had evidently been a stable.

“The first time I ever saw Frederick was in February of 1848 when he
came over to Holly Hill to tell Grandpa Perkins the news of the flight
of Louis Philippe from Paris, just received in New York.

“Frederick was then settled on his farm with his Aunt Maria Olmsted as
housekeeper and provider for two jolly green freshly imported Irish
maids and three or four farm laborers. We soon called on her and the
families were very friendly. At that time Grandpa occupied Holly
Hill Farm and Uncle Frank was living in South Brooklyn. John Hull
Olmsted had just graduated and had come to New York to Dr. Willard
Parker’s office to study medicine. He came to the farm for week ends
and holidays bringing Charles Brace generally and sometimes Frederick
Kingsbury. By the winter time I had grown so intimate with the
Olmsteds that it was arranged that I should pass Christmas at Hartford
on my way back from a visit in Boston, which I did.

“In June his father, step-mother and half sisters Mary and Bertha and
young half brother Albert came to pass a long season, bringing with
them a fine span of horses and an open carriage, the regular farm
outfit being Old Black subject to blind staggers and not too speedy at
best and an old Rockaway.

“Frederick was at this time 26 years of age full of life and fun. He
threw himself into farming with enthusiasm, introduced system and
order to his men, expecting for one thing that at knocking off time
every tool used should be returned to its appointed place and that
every ‘chore’ should be done at the hour fixed, the foreman to report
progress before going in to supper. He engaged in planting and dealing
in fruit-trees, pears principally, which he imported from France.
All was done in a simple inexpensive way, using the old buildings
on the place and practicing rigid economy. He interested himself in
the County Agricultural Society and soon became an active member in
company with Wm. H. Vanderbilt who was at the time a farmer at New
Dorp Lane.

“Frederick had a very pretty talent for caricatures, not of a
grotesque kind but full of quiet humor.... He was fond of long
discussions on moral points as when, if ever, it is allowable to
depart from a direct statement of fact, etc., etc. He was perhaps over
fond of arguments to be pleasing to women. Whimsies had no charm for
him. _Sartor Resartus_ and _Modern Painters_ were our text books.

“Aunt Maria was a dear kind devoted woman of fifty, plain as a
pikestaff and devoid of vanity.

“Mr. Olmsted, the father, had just retired from business with a modest
competence. He was the kindest and most indulgent of fathers,--a man
with a strict sense of justice and of duty, exacting toward himself
rather than toward others. His wife was a Puritan, a model of order
and system, most efficient as an organizer and full of interest in
Nature and Man.

“The family continued to make its summer home at the farm until the
end of the summer of 1853, six years.”

It was in 1849-1850 that Frederick considered going into the nursery
business on a small scale. He wrote to his father on March 14:

I have been to Flushing and got the trees. Parsons’ bill is $258.
and he desires especially if it cannot be paid before the 1st of May
that he may have paper that he can use--your note. I have been so
unfortunate in my sales that I concluded not to take so many by 300
trees as I had intended. Parsons being very willing, he will probably
sell the trees from 5 to 10 per cent more than my price. Mr. Field
strongly recommends me to purchase for myself in France. Thinks I
might find ready sale for some thousand on Staten Island within a few
years, at 100 per cent over cost of importing them. I called at the
Packet offices this morning but could not get anything reliable as to
freight. As near as I can guess the bulk of 100 trees (small dwarf
pear) of ordinary goods would not be over $1.00. S---- gave me to
understand it would be near $10. I think he lied. But even at that I
could import them one year younger than these I have of Parsons for
but little more than one half what I pay him and at about one quarter
what Mr. Field paid for his.

Later in his venture he wrote to Fred Kingsbury:

SOUTH SIDE, Dec. 21, 1850.

There is a good deal of building this winter.

My trees are to arrive soon, so I cannot go to Connecticut at present.
More of them than I had calculated the man could supply, about 5,000
pears. The nurseryman makes me a present of 200 samples of his shrubs
and trees. They are also lower than they had been offered and promise
very fine. You have a nurseryman in Waterbury. I wish you would
ask him if he does not want some pears on pear or quince stock, of
the latter I have the finest lot ever imported and will sell them
lower than the regular nurserymen. I shall have a few popular shrubs
and trees of other sorts. How would a few hundred go at auction in
Waterbury? I have a lot of (pot plants) cedar of Lebanon.

In this letter, he adds:

We are likely to have a Plank Road upon the island, contract is
offered at exactly the sum per mile I estimated in an article upon the
subject in the _Staten Isler_ last spring. Our society does well, I
have near $20. worth of premiums.

The society to which he refers, and of which he was Corresponding
Secretary, was the Richmond County Agricultural Society. Early in 1850
the Board of Managers issued an “Appeal to the Citizens of Staten
Island.” In this we read:

“How is this, Fellow Citizens? Is the very best method of Farming which
can be adopted universally practiced among us? Is it by any one of us?
Is Agriculture, as a science, sufficiently understood in our community?
Can no luxuries be added to our orchards--no new beauty bloom in our
gardens? Are there no incongruities or inconveniences in our Domestic
Architecture? Is the want of refined Rural Taste nowhere observable on
our island? Are we quite satisfied with our _Roads_--confident that our
breeds of cattle are unsurpassed, and that no improvements can be added
to the implements of our Husbandry, that we should neglect or refuse
to combine our knowledge and influence in these matters? May we not
want a little of the patriotic sentiment, the neighborly feeling, the
cordial good understanding among ourselves, that would be promoted by
a free interchange of our thoughts, opinions and observations, and by
manifesting a unity of purpose with regard to these subjects of common
interest?”

Frederick recorded his progress in the nursery business in a letter to
his father Nov. 6, 1851:

I have sold near $100. worth of trees besides those sent to Terry.
Received order for a small lot to be delivered at Hartford at
wholesale prices from Sol. Porter, Porter Place, Banker. I referred
him to my letter but told him that on the supposition that he meant
to increase his order I would send the trees, putting them on board
Hartford boat at $50. rate, if I did not hear from him this week to
the contrary. He ordered also some peach trees, which I shall have
to get, I don’t know where. Next day another order, “2d, not for
Porter Place,” for 20 more pears. I have had two calls from men that
wanted a large number shade trees--evergreens--and other fruit trees,
that I could not supply--and could not get the ordering of. One of
them[10] is engaged in laying out grounds for Aspinwalls, Livingston
and others at Clifton and told me he should have bought a good many
hundred trees if I had had such as he wanted. He took 31 pears at 60
cts. for Livingston and O’Conner. Townsend called & took 24, Bunker,
15 and others of that sort, making the best sort of nest eggs for the
business.

There is a remark in a letter of 1890 from Mr. Olmsted to Dr. Peter
Collier, Director of the Agricultural Experiment Station at Geneva, N.
Y., which shows how important he considered this period of his career:
“I began life as a farmer, and although for forty years I have had no
time to give to agricultural affairs, I still feel myself to belong to
the farming community, and that all else that I am has grown from the
agricultural trunk.”

FOOTNOTES:

[6] This was a period of intelligent interest in scientific
agriculture, and there was an outburst of farm journals, beginning in
the late thirties. See the list in Bailey’s _Cyclopedia of American
Agriculture_, 1909, Vol. IV.

[7] “Mr. Geddes’ father was prominent in building the Erie Canal and
he was himself an engineer, as well as a farmer, and interested in
politics, so that Mr. Olmsted had plenty of stimulus to think while he
worked, and in the evening to discuss a wide range of subjects with an
intelligent man.” From Biographical Introduction by F. L. Olmsted, Jr.,
to _Seaboard Slave States_, edition of 1904.

[8] Mr. John Olmsted’s firm in Hartford was a regularly accredited
agency for the _Cultivator_ and its name appears on the title-page.

[9] Mrs. Olmsted died April 23, 1921, at the age of ninety-one.

[10] Evidently one of the popular “landscape gardeners” to which
reference is made in Part III.

CHAPTER V

LANDSCAPING

There are several bits in the letters during his career as a farmer
that show his earliest attempts at landscape improvement.

When the farm at Sachem’s Head, Guilford, was being considered for
purchase, he wrote to his father, July 23, 1846:

I have thought a good deal about that Sachem’s Head place without
knowing it was for sale (so I have of ’Miah’s). There is no fruit
there, I suppose, and perhaps no soil for it. I should like to hear
more about it. There is the prettiest ground for a _ferme ornée_ in
that place of ’Miah’s I ever saw almost, a beautiful nook under the
mountain or dell, with a fine large trout brook running through it, a
quarter of a mile from David’s, half a mile from the railroad canal.
The farm has been miserably cultivated by the old miserly tyrant that
has gone to his account, but there is by nature excellent land and
every convenience and beauty desirable.

After the Sachem’s Head farm was bought, he wrote definitely (March
23, 1847) of its landscape development to his brother, with a marginal
sketch of his general idea:

I wrote shortly to father yesterday and now reply to yours of the 18th
inst.

I note what you say about Alsop’s and trees. I intend to plant
(trans-) but few ornamental trees and with them to take great
pains,--until I know where to put my house exactly, I cannot arrange
the lawn very well. The lawn is to be the grand feature of my
gardening. The ground is naturally graded and finely adapted for a
broad, smooth green plat broken only by a few trees or clumps, along
on the rear edge of it and so circling towards the shore, some low
thick shrubbery (a) is wanted. Back (cornering on b) I suppose will be
a good place for an orchard (beyond the proposed barn). ’Tis there we
are carting our manure now and mean to plant corn and potatoes this
year.

[Illustration: Facsimile of Letter with Mr. Olmsted’s Earliest Sketch
for Improvement of Grounds, 1847]

He consulted an architect regarding the proposed house, having himself
first made sketches of floor plans and determined tentatively on a
site. By November 10, 1847 he had planted trees, which he describes in
a letter to his brother:

We have planted 75 apple trees in first rate manner, 60 quinces, too.
About a dozen ornamental forest trees on the back bone of the point
lot; which make quite a pretty show,--but I do not think many of them
will live.

Further improvements were not carried out at Sachem’s Head on account
of the relinquishment of this farm for the larger and more promising
place on Staten Island.

Mr. Frederick Kingsbury in 1903, after Mr. Olmsted’s death, recalled
the development of the Staten Island farm and his friend’s beginning as
a landscape improver. When Mr. Kingsbury first visited the new farm,
Mr. Olmsted explained how he intended to improve its appearance.

Mr. Kingsbury notes:

“The house was simple yet picturesque. It had been occupied by a
tenant. The barns were quite near, and in the rear of the house was
a small pond, fifteen or twenty feet in diameter, used for washing
waggons, watering stock, and as a swimming place for dogs, ducks and
geese. There was no turf near it. The whole place was as dirty and
disorderly as the most bucolic person could desire. It was on the
surroundings of the house that Olmsted first showed his genius in
landscape construction.

“He moved the barns and all their belongings behind a knoll, he brought
the road in so that it approached the house by a graceful curve, he
turfed the borders of the pond and planted water plants on its edge and
shielded it from all contamination. Thus, with a few strokes and at
small expense he transformed the place from a very dirty, disagreeable
farmyard to a gentleman’s house. This was his first attempt at anything
of the sort, and it was as successful as anything he ever did.”

Mr. Kingsbury preserved a letter which his friend wrote him in the fall
of 1848, pursuing the subject of landscape surroundings:

I am glad you are disposed to notice such things as Harral’s house so
much. The effect such things have on the taste of a community,--and
through that on their hearts and lives--the elevation,--I believe is
very much underestimated.

I do exceedingly enjoy the view from my house, sometimes it is
“wondrous beautiful”; just now for instance in this charming sleepy
autumn haze, I cannot attempt to describe it, constantly changing,
always renewedly interesting. I can tell you a few features always
present. The water view extends over just half the circle. From the
immediate opposite front, to the left of the arc, it is bounded by the
horizon,--dark blue ocean, with forever distant sails coming up or
sinking as they bid good-bye to America. Then all over that quarter at
all distances are all sorts of vessels--at anchor or under sail--and
in all variety constantly shifting. On the extreme right, across the
water (Raritan Bay), the horizon is broken by the hills of Jersey some
twelve miles off, I suppose. They sweep off gradually growing into
something like mountains as they curve round facing us; yet to the
front, suddenly and abruptly they end in a precipitous cliff similar
to their relations, the Palisades of N. River. This is the Highland of
Navesink, and we can just discern a cluster of white towers upon its
brink, the fixed and revolving lights and the Telegraph Station.

A little beyond it (on the circle’s edge) you imagine the horizon is
half broken by a long yellowish white streak. It is the sand and spray
or foam of Sandy Hook, and the three singularly distinct sails are
nothing but its three white light-houses. There is yet another light
in sight of us and in a dark night these six lights are curiously
interesting,--affecting different minds with different ideas or
feelings. To me they present a cheerful, neighborhood effect. To a
stranger coming here in the dark it seems to me they must have a very
sociable look. It is almost impossible to realize their distance.
Staten Island I am sure you would like in itself,--there are many
charming inland views.

CHAPTER VI

RELATIONS WITH DOWNING

Since Mr. Olmsted’s particular interest in rural pursuits dated from
1844 and Andrew Jackson Downing did not meet his death until 1852,
one naturally looks for some connection between the two men. We know
that Mr. Olmsted contributed to the _Horticulturist_,[11] that he had
letters of advice and introduction from Mr. Downing for his European
trip of 1850, and that he visited Downing at Newburgh, at least
once. Nevertheless, there is surprisingly little to be found bearing
definitely on their relations.

This subject was presented before the Boston Society of Landscape
Architects in 1916, by Mr. John C. Olmsted, in a paper entitled “The
Influence of A. J. Downing on the Designers of Central Park,” from
which the following is a brief selection.

“Those who knew A. J. Downing and have written about him have made it
clear that he was just the sort of man to have had a marked influence
on the young and impressionable men who later became the designers
of Central Park. It is incontestable that he had every opportunity
to impress his knowledge and cultivated taste in subjects related to
park designing on at least the younger of those two young men, namely
Calvert Vaux, because he had brought Mr. Vaux in the summer of 1850
from London, where he had been a pupil and draughtsman in the office
of a London architect named Truefitt, to act as his architectural
assistant. He soon advanced him to be his partner. Mr. Downing was
drowned about two years after he brought Mr. Vaux to this country. Mr.
Vaux no doubt took over the business of the firm and completed the
unfinished works. For that purpose I think he continued to live in
Newburgh for probably two years or more, when he removed to New York
City....

“Knowing how wide awake and keen for intellectual cultivation and
knowledge Mr. Calvert Vaux was, and having listened to innumerable
conversations of his, I can imagine the profound influence upon the
younger man of his intellectual intercourse with his well read and
thoughtful partner, A. J. Downing....

“The other designer of Central Park, Frederick Law Olmsted, it can
well be imagined was somewhat influenced by A. J. Downing, although
for the most part indirectly through the latter’s writings. I know
he several times spoke to me of A. J. Downing, but my recollection
of what he said is too vague to be of much help. I simply have the
impression that he had met and knew A. J. Downing both as a social
acquaintance and as a man, like himself, professionally concerned in
the education of the public in horticulture, agriculture and rural
taste.”

There is one letter preserved from Mr. Olmsted to Mr. Downing, written
after the former’s return from abroad.

SOUTHSIDE STATEN ISLAND,
Nov. 23, 1850.

DEAR SIR:

I wish to thank you for your kindness in sending me, through Mr. Field
last spring, a letter of introduction to Mr. Thompson of London. I did
not arrive in London in season to attend the exhibition you wished me
to, but I twice visited the gardens and enjoyed valuable conversations
with Mr. Thompson, who was very obliging and communicative. I took his
advice as to what I should see in Paris, and I had thought to offer
you some account of what most interested me there, but nearly all that
was new and valuable of my observations there has already now appeared
in the _Horticulturist_ in the article by Mr. S. from the _Journal_ of
the London Soc’y.

I spent only about one month on the Continent, mostly Germany, where
I much enjoyed the social out-door life, and the frequent approaches
to realizations of your _ideal village_. The custom of taking meals
in the gardens or summer houses is very common; and it seemed to me
the middle classes at least _lived_ in the open air more than even the
English; nor did it seem to me, as is frequently asserted, that their
habits in these respects injured the _family_ influence, or made Home
any less home_like_ and lovable, but the contrary.

I saw the best parts of England, spending two months travelling
through it on foot, seeing the country of course to great advantage,
so that I feel as if I had not merely seen the rural character, but
lived in it, and made it a _part_ of me. I was then two months in
Ireland and Scotland.

I wish you would when convenient do us (your disciples in
Horticulture) the favor to explain distinctly the terms used to
describe the different ways of growing pears, etc. I think your
correspondents of the _Horticulturist_ have generally used the term
Standard to designate pears grown on pear stock only, and Dwarf for
those on Quince or Thorn. But in Europe does not Dwarf mean a low
ill-shapen tree, or a maiden tree that has lost its leader, and is
only suitable for walls?... I was disappointed at not finding the
pear grown on quince more abroad. Even at Paris I saw but few in open
culture. Those at the _Jardin des Plantes_ and at the Luxembourg are
splendid full grown trees, and even this bad season were as full as
could be desired of fruit. At Versailles they were mostly on trellis
or walls--those _en quenouille_ invariably looked unhealthy.

I saw your _Fruits of America_ in France and England and Scotland;
always shown as something for me to be proud of as your countryman.

Yours Respectfully,
FRED. LAW OLMSTED.

Mr. A. J. Downing.

That the two men were regularly in correspondence on subjects of
professional interest may be inferred from a bit in a letter to Charles
Brace, not yet returned from the Continent, Jan. 11, 1851: “I have
written to Downing to tell him who you are. He wants me to write him in
familiar letters Rough Impressions of Germany, etc. I find I cannot do
it. I saw and know too little of Germany to write distinctly upon it,
but I agree with him that whoever could do it would be in the way of
doing a good deal of small good.”

There is only a word to be found in the correspondence of that period
about Mr. Olmsted’s visit to Downing,--in a letter to Fred. Kingsbury,
Aug. 5, 1851: “I liked Ossining and Newburgh.[12] There is a piece in
my book in one of the _Horticulturists_ this summer, on Birkenhead Park
mostly.”

In an article by Mrs. Van Rensselaer in the _Century_ for October,
1893, based directly on reminiscences which Mr. Olmsted gave her in
conversation, it is stated that he visited Downing at Newburgh and made
the acquaintance of Calvert Vaux.

The second volume[13] of Mr. Olmsted’s first book, _Walks and Talks_
(1852), contained the following dedication:

To the Memory of
ANDREW JACKSON DOWNING:
Whatever of good, true, and pleasant thought this
volume may contain, is humbly and
reverently inscribed.

Mr. Olmsted left among his papers a jotting evidently intended to be
used in beginning an address for some occasion or other.

A. J. DOWNING

This is not a rhetorical introduction to my subject; it is a plain
statement of one of the conclusions of a special study from which I
have been led to regard Mr. Downing as a great benefactor of our race
and to desire almost above all things to do something to extend and
prolong his influence. Although he had a philosophic turn of mind, I
do not doubt that he builded better than he knew in that the plans and
instructions which he gave to the public were far less excellent with
reference to their ostensible ends, than they were with reference to
the purpose of stimulating the exercise of judgment and taste in the
audience addressed.

There are also a number of little sheets which Mr. Olmsted had had
printed off, perhaps for the same occasion, and perhaps for some other
public use, bearing the following quotation,--which expresses Mr.
Olmsted’s own ideals of democracy as well:

“And yet this broad ground of popular refinement must be taken in
republican America, for it belongs of right more truly here than
elsewhere. It is republican in its very idea and tendency. It takes
up popular education where the common school and ballot-box leave
it, and raises up the working man to the same level of enjoyment
with the man of leisure and accomplishment. The higher social and
artistic elements of every man’s nature lie dormant within him, and
every laborer is a possible gentleman, not by the possession of money
or fine clothes, but through the refining influence of intellectual
and moral culture. Open wide, therefore, the doors of your libraries
and picture galleries, all ye true republicans! Build halls where
knowledge shall be freely diffused among men, and not shut up within
the narrow walls of narrower institutions. Plant spacious parks in
your cities, and unloose their gates as wide as the gates of morning
to the whole people. As there are no dark places at noon day, so
education and culture--the true sunshine of the soul--will banish the
plague spots of democracy; and the dread of the ignorant exclusive,
who has no faith in the refinement of a republic, will stand abashed
in the next century, before a whole people whose system of voluntary
education embraces (combined with perfect individual freedom), not
only common schools of rudimentary knowledge, but common enjoyments
for all classes in the higher realms of art, letters, science, social
recreations, and enjoyments. Were our legislators but wise enough
to understand, today, the destinies of the New World, the gentility
of Sir Philip Sidney, made universal, would be not half so much a
miracle fifty years hence in America as the idea of a whole nation of
laboring-men reading and writing, was, in his day, in England.”

--A. J. DOWNING.

Mr. Olmsted and Mr. Vaux were consulted in 1860 with regard to the
memorial to Mr. Downing appropriately proposed to be erected in the
Central Park but never carried out, and again in 1889 with reference to
the Downing memorial park at Newburgh. Mrs. Downing,[14] who afterwards
married Judge Monell, was a lifelong friend of the Vauxes and Olmsteds.

FOOTNOTES:

[11] As early as Aug. 1847 (Vol. 2, No. 2) there appeared in the
_Horticulturist_ a letter from F. L. Olmsted, Sachem’s Head, Guilford,
Conn., dated June 29, 1847, under the heading “Queries on Sea-Coast
Culture.” The letter asked about quinces and protection of plants at
the seashore. Two selections from the MS. of _Walks and Talks_ were
published in the _Horticulturist_ (1851 and 1852) with editorial
endorsement by Mr. Downing, who reviewed the book at great length. An
article on pears by F. L. Olmsted, Southside, Staten Island, appeared
in the _Horticulturist_ for Jan. 1, 1852.

[12] Downing’s home.

[13] The first had been dedicated to Mr. George Geddes, of “Fairmount.”

[14] In 1867 Mrs. Downing, who had then become Mrs. Monell, wrote to
Mr. Olmsted thanking him for “editing” Downing’s _Cottage Residences_.
The “editing” was probably limited to a friendly revision of proofs,
since the posthumous editions of the book contain no references to Mr.
Olmsted as editor.

CHAPTER VII

LANDSCAPE OBSERVATIONS FROM EUROPEAN TRAVEL

We know from Mr. Olmsted’s own words that he had a particular interest
in visiting parks both on his first European journey of 1850, and in
1856, when he was abroad attending to his publishing business and
travelling also somewhat with his sisters. In his _Walks and Talks of
an American Farmer in England_, first published in 1852, there are a
number of passages which should be quoted here, particularly as showing
the trained observation of scenery which he later brought to his
landscape designing, and his keen interest in the social and economic
aspects of rural life.[15] It is interesting to know, too, that the
book was illustrated by his own sketches.[16]

Although he went primarily as a farmer, he had in mind to see all
sides of the country. He wrote to his father before sailing: “I can
have now the advantage of letters from Norton to the Scotch farmers,
from Field to the English, from Antisell to the Irish. They all have
warm friends there yet among just the men I want to learn from. Parsons
will introduce me to the gardens and nurseries. Prof. Johnston returns
to Edinboro, Judge Emerson and Stevens direct me to the lions of
London, and Field opens the manufacturies.”

BIRKENHEAD AND ITS PARK

Birkenhead is the most important suburb of Liverpool, having the same
relation to it that Charlestown has to Boston or Brooklyn to New
York. When the first line of Liverpool packets was established, there
were not half a dozen houses here; it now has a population of many
thousands, and is increasing with a rapidity hardly paralleled in the
New World. This is greatly owing to the very liberal and enterprising
policy of the land-owners, which affords an example that might be
profitably followed in the vicinity of many of our own large towns.
There are several public squares, and the streets and places are broad,
and well paved and lighted. A considerable part of the town has been
built with reference to general effect, from the plans and under the
direction of a talented architect, Gillespie Graham....

The baker had begged of us not to leave Birkenhead without seeing their
_new park_, and at his suggestion we left our knapsacks with him, and
proceeded to it. As we approached the entrance, we were met by women
and girls, who, holding out a cup of milk, asked us--“_Will you take a
cup of milk, sirs?--good, cool, sweet, cow’s milk, gentlemen, or right
warm from the ass!_” And at the gate was a herd of donkeys, some with
cans of milk strapped to them, others saddled and bridled, to be let
for ladies and children to ride.

The gateway, which is about a mile and a half from the ferry, and
quite back of the town, is a great, massive block of handsome Ionic
architecture, standing alone, and unsupported by any thing else in the
vicinity, and looking, as I think, heavy and awkward. There is a sort
of grandeur about it that the English are fond of, but which, when it
is entirely separate from all other architectural constructions, always
strikes me unpleasantly. It seems intended as an impressive preface
to a great display of art within; but here, as well as at Eaton Park,
and other places I have since seen, it is not followed up with great
things, the grounds immediately within the grand entrance being very
simple, and apparently rather overlooked by the gardener. There is a
large archway for carriages, and two smaller ones for those on foot,
and, on either side, and over these, are rooms, which probably serve as
inconvenient lodges for the labourers. No porter appears, and the gates
are freely open to the public.

Walking a short distance up an avenue, we passed through another light
iron gate into a thick, luxuriant and diversified garden. Five minutes
of admiration, and a few more spent in studying the manner in which
art had been employed to obtain from nature so much beauty, and I was
ready to admit that in democratic America there was nothing to be
thought of as comparable with this People’s Garden. Indeed, gardening
had here reached a perfection that I had never before dreamed of. I
cannot undertake to describe the effect of so much taste and skill as
had evidently been employed; I will only tell you, that we passed by
winding paths over acres and acres, with a constant varying surface,
where on all sides were growing every variety of shrubs and flowers,
with more than natural grace, all set in borders of greenest, closest
turf, and all kept with most consummate neatness. At a distance of a
quarter of a mile from the gate, we came to an open field of clean,
bright green-sward, closely mown, on which a large tent was pitched,
and a party of boys in one part, and a party of gentlemen in another,
were playing cricket. Beyond this was a large meadow with rich groups
of trees, under which a flock of sheep were reposing, and girls and
women with children, were playing. While watching the cricketers, we
were threatened with a shower, and hastened back to look for shelter,
which we found in a pagoda, on an island approached by a Chinese
bridge. It was soon filled, as were the other ornamental buildings,
by a crowd of those who, like ourselves, had been overtaken in the
grounds by the rain; and I was glad to observe that the privileges of
the garden were enjoyed about equally by all classes. There were some
who were attended by servants, and sent at once for their carriages,
but a large proportion were of the common ranks, and a few women with
children, or suffering from ill health, were evidently the wives of
very humble labourers. There were a number of strangers, and some we
observed with notebooks and portfolios, that seemed to have come from a
distance to study from the garden. The summer-houses, lodges, bridges,
etc., were all well constructed, and of undecaying materials. One of
the bridges which we crossed was of our countryman Remington’s patent,
an extremely light and graceful erection.

I obtained most of the following information from the head
working-gardener.

The site of the park and garden was, ten years ago, a flat, sterile
clay farm. It was placed in the hands of Mr. Paxton, in June, 1844, by
whom it was laid out in its present form by June of the following year.
Carriage roads, thirty-four feet wide, with borders of ten feet, and
walks varying in width, were first drawn and made. The excavation for a
pond was also made, and the earth obtained from these sources used for
making mounds and to vary the surface, which has been done with much
_naturalness_ and taste. The whole ground was thoroughly under-drained,
the minor drains of stone, the main, of tile. By these sufficient water
is obtained to fully supply the pond, or lake, as they call it, which
is from twenty to forty feet wide, and about three feet deep, and
meanders for a long distance through the garden. It is stocked with
aquatic plants, gold fish and swans.

The roads are macadamized. On each side of the carriage way, and of all
the walks, pipes for drainage are laid, which communicate with deep
main drains that run under the edge of all the mounds or flower beds.
The walks are laid first with six inches of fine broken stone, then
three inches cinders, and the surface with six inches of fine rolled
gravel. All the stones on the ground which were not used for these
purposes, were laid in masses of rock-work, and mosses and rock-plants
attached to them. The mounds were then planted with shrubs, and heaths
and ferns, and the beds with flowering plants. Between these, and the
walks and drives, is everywhere a belt of turf (which, by the way, is
kept close cut with short, broad scythes, and shears, and swept with
_hair-brooms_, as we saw). Then the rural lodges, temple, pavilion,
bridges, _orchestra for a band of instrumental music_, _etc._, were
built. And so, in one year, the skeleton of this delightful garden was
complete.

But this is but a small part. Besides the cricket and an archery
ground, large valleys were made verdant, extensive drives arranged,
plantations, clumps, and avenues of trees formed, and a large park
laid out. And all this magnificent pleasure-ground is entirely,
unreservedly, and for ever the people’s own. The poorest British
peasant is as free to enjoy it in all its parts as the British queen.
More than that, the baker of Birkenhead has the pride of an OWNER in it.

Is it not a grand good thing? But you are inquiring who _paid_ for
it. The honest owners--the most wise and worthy townspeople of
Birkenhead--in the same way that the New Yorkers pay for “the Tombs”
and the Hospital, and the _cleaning_ (as they amusingly say) of their
streets.

Of the farm which was purchased, one hundred and twenty acres have been
disposed of in the way I have described. The remaining sixty acres,
encircling the park and garden, were reserved to be sold or rented,
after being well graded, streeted, and planted, for private building
lots. Several fine mansions are already built on these (having private
entrances to the park), and the rest now sell at $1.25 a square yard.
The whole concern cost the town between five and six hundred thousand
dollars. It gives employment, at present, to ten gardeners and
labourers in summer, and to five in winter.

The generous spirit and fearless enterprise that has accomplished this,
has not been otherwise forgetful of the health and comfort of the poor.
Among other things, I remember, a public washing and bathing house for
the town is provided. I should have mentioned also, in connection with
the market, that in the outskirts of the town there is a range of stone
slaughter-houses, with stables, yards, pens, supplies of hot and cold
water and other arrangements and conveniences, that enlightened regard
for health and decency would suggest.

The consequence of all these sorts of things is, that all about the
town lands, which a few years ago were almost worthless wastes, have
become of priceless value; where no sound was heard but the bleating of
goats and braying of asses complaining of their pasturage, there is now
the hasty click and clatter of many hundred busy trowels and hammers.
You may drive through wide and thronged streets of stately edifices,
where were only a few scattered huts, surrounded by quagmires. Docks
of unequalled size and grandeur are building, and a forest of masts
grows along the shore; and there is no doubt that this young town is
to be not only remarkable as a most agreeable and healthy place of
residence, but that it will soon be distinguished for extensive and
profitable commerce. It seems to me to be the only town I ever saw that
has been really built at all in accordance with the advanced science,
taste and enterprising spirit that are supposed to distinguish the
nineteenth century. I do not doubt it might be found to have plenty
of exceptions to its general character, but I did not inquire for
these, nor did I happen to observe them. Certainly, in what I have
noticed, it is a model town, and may be held up as an example not only
to philanthropists and men of taste, but to speculators and men of
business.

After leaving the park, we ascended a hill, from the top of which we
had a fine view of Liverpool and Birkenhead. Its sides were covered
with villas, with little gardens about them. The architecture was
generally less fantastic, and the style and materials of building more
substantial than is usually employed in the same class of residences
with us. Yet there was a good deal of the same _stuck up_ and uneasy
pretentious air about them that the suburban houses of our own city
people so commonly have. Possibly this is the effect of association,
in my mind, of steady, reliable worth and friendship with plain or
old-fashioned dwellings, for I often find it difficult to discover
in the buildings themselves the element of such expression. I am
inclined to think it is more generally owing to some disunity in the
design,--often, perhaps, to a want of keeping between the mansion and
its grounds or its situation. The architect and the gardener do not
understand each other, and commonly the owner or resident is totally at
variance in his tastes and intentions from both; or the man whose ideas
the plan is made to serve, or who pays for it, has no true independent
taste, but had fancies to be accommodated, which only follow confusedly
after custom or fashion. I think, with Ruskin, it is a pity that every
man’s house cannot be really his own, and that he can not make all that
is true, beautiful, and good in his own character, tastes, pursuits,
and history manifest in it.

But however fanciful and uncomfortable many of the villa houses about
Liverpool and Birkenhead appear at first sight, the substantial and
thorough manner in which most of them are built will atone for many
faults. The friendship of nature has been secured to them. Dampness,
heat, cold, will be welcome to do their best. Every day they will
improve. In fifty or a hundred years fashions may change, and they
will appear, perhaps, quaint, possibly grotesque; but still strong,
home-like, and hospitable. They have no shingles to rot, no glued and
puttied and painted gimcrackery to warp and crack and moulder; and can
never look so shabby, and desolate, and dreary, as will nine-tenths of
the buildings of the same denomination now erecting about New York,
almost as soon as they lose the raw, cheerless, imposter-like airs
which seem almost inseparable from their newness.

A FERME ORNÉE

A few miles further on we came to a large, park-like pasture, bounded
by a neatly trimmed hedge, and entered by a simple gate, from which
a private road ran curving among a few clumps of trees to a mansion
about a furlong distant. We entered, and rested ourselves awhile at
the foot of some large oaks. The house was nearly hidden among trees,
and these, seen across the clear grass land, were the finest groups of
foliage we had ever seen. A peculiar character was given it by one or
two _copper-leaved_ beeches--large, tall trees, thickly branched from
the very surface of the ground. (These trees, which are frequently used
with great good effect in landscape gardening in England, are rare in
America, though they may be had at the nurseries. There are two sorts,
one much less red than the other.) The cattle in this pasture-lawn were
small and black, brisk and wild-looking, but so tame in reality, that
as we lay under the tree, they came up and licked our hands like dogs.
The whole picture completely realized Willis’s beautiful ideal, “The
Cottage _Insoucieuse_.”

EATON PARK

In the afternoon we walked to Eaton Park.

Probably there is no object of art that Americans of cultivated taste
generally more long to see in Europe than an English park. What artist
so noble, has often been my thought, as he who, with far-reaching
conception of beauty and designing power, sketches the outline, writes
the colours, and directs the shadows of a picture so great that Nature
shall be employed upon it for generations, before the work he has
arranged for her shall realize his intentions.[17]

... We came to the great castellated edifice that I have before spoken
of as the gateway to the park. Such we were told it was, and were
therefore surprised to find within only a long, straight road, with
but tolerable mowing lots alternating by the side of it, with thick
plantations of trees, no way differing from the twenty-year old natural
wood of my own farm, except that hollies, laurels, and our common
dogwood were planted regularly along the edge.

* * * * *

We tramped on for several miles through this tame scenery and most
ungentlemanly farming, until it became really tiresome. At length the
wood fell back, and the road was lined for some way with a double row
of fine elms. Still no deer. A little further, and we came to a cottage
most beautifully draped with ivy; passed through another gate. Ah! here
is the real park at last.

A gracefully, irregular, gently undulating surface of close-cropped
pasture land, reaching way off inimitably; dark green in colour; very
old, but not very large trees scattered singly and in groups--so far
apart as to throw long unbroken shadows across broad openings of
light, and leave the view in several directions unobstructed for a
long distance. Herds of fallow-deer, fawns, cattle, sheep and lambs
quietly feeding near us, and moving slowly in masses at a distance; a
warm atmosphere, descending sun, and sublime shadows from fleecy clouds
transiently darkening in succession, sunny surface, cool woodside,
flocks and herds, and foliage.

The road ran on winding through this. We drew a long breath, and walked
slowly for a little way, then turned aside at the nearest tree, and lay
down to take it all in satisfactorily.

* * * * *

We concluded that the sheep and cattle were of the most value for their
effect in the landscape; but it was a little exciting to us to watch
the deer, particularly as we would sometimes see them in a large herd
leisurely moving across an opening among the trees, a long way off, and
barely distinguishable.

* * * * *

It is not my business to attempt a criticism of “the finest specimen of
the pointed Gothic” in England; but I may honestly say that it did not,
as a whole, produce the expected effect of grandeur or sublimity upon
us, without trying to find reasons for the failure. Even when we came
to look at it closely, we found little to admire. There was no great
simple beauty in it as a mass, nor yet vigorous original character
enough in the details to make them an interesting study. The edifice
is long and low, and covered with an immense amount of meaningless
decoration.

Such was our first impression, and we were greatly disappointed, you
may be sure. We admired it more afterwards on the other side, from
the middle of a great garden, where it seems to stand much higher,
being set up on terraces, and gaining much, I suspect, from the
extension of architectural character to the grounds in its front. Here
we acknowledged a good deal of magnificence in its effect. Still it
seemed as if it might have been obtained in some other style, with less
labour, and was much frittered away in the confusion of ornament.

This garden is a curiosity. It is in the geometrical style, and covers
eight acres, it is said, though it does not seem nearly that to the
eye. It is merely a succession of small arabesque figures of fine
grass or flower beds, set in hard, rolled, dark-coloured gravel. The
surface, dropping by long terraces from the steps of the hall to the
river, is otherwise only varied by stiff pyramidal yews and box, and
a few vases. On the whole, the effect of it in connection with the
house, and looking towards it, is good, more so than I should have
expected; and it falls so rapidly, that it affects the landscape seen
in this distance _from_ the house but very little. This is exquisitely
beautiful, looking across the Dee, over a lovely valley towards some
high, blue mountains. From other parts of the hall grand vistas open
through long avenues of elms, and there are some noble single trees
about the lawn.

This English elm is a much finer tree than I had been aware of--very
tall, yet with drooping limbs and fine thick foliage; not nearly as
fine as a single tree as our elm, but even more effective, I think, in
masses, because thicker and better filled out in its general outline.

ENGLISH LANDSCAPE

I must say, that on the whole, the agriculture of Cheshire, as the
first sample of that of England which is presented to me, is far below
my expectations. There are sufficient reasons to expect that we shall
find other parts much superior to it; but what we have seen quite
disposes of the common picture which our railroad and stage-coach
travellers are in the habit of giving to our imagination, by saying
that “all England is like a garden.” Meaning only a “landscape
garden,” a beautiful and harmonious combination of hill and dale, with
the richest masses of trees, and groups and lines of shrubbery, the
greenest turf and most picturesque buildings, it might be appropriately
said of many parts, particularly in the south of the country. But, with
reference to cultivation, and the productiveness of the land, it might
be quite as truly applied to some small districts of our own country as
to this part of England.

* * * * *

... We reach another lane and cultivated fields again, and, being on
elevated ground at the knarly feet of a glorious, breezy, gray, old
beech-tree, lay ourselves down, and, looking back upon the extensive
landscape, tell our friend in what it differs from American scenery.

The great beauty and peculiarity of the English landscape is to be
found in the frequent long, graceful lines of deep green hedges
and hedge-row timber, crossing hill, valley, and plain, in every
direction; and in the occasional large trees, dotting the broad
fields, either singly or in small groups, left to their natural open
growth, (for ship-timber, and, while they stand, for cattle shades,)
therefore branching low and spreading wide, and more beautiful, much
more beautiful, than we often allow our trees to make themselves.
The less frequent brilliancy of broad streams or ponds of water,
also distinguishes the prospect from those we are accustomed to,
though there are often small brooks or pools, and much marshy land,
and England may be called a well-watered country. In the foreground
you will notice the quaint buildings, generally pleasing objects in
themselves, often supporting what is most agreeable of all, and what
you can never fail to admire, never see any thing ugly or homely
under, a curtain of ivy or other creepers; the ditches and the
banks by their side, on which the hedges are planted; the clean and
careful cultivation, and general tidiness of the agriculture; and
the deep, narrow, crooked, gulch-like lane, or the smooth, clean,
matchless, broad highway. Where trees are set in masses for ornament,
the Norway spruce and the red beech generally give a dark, ponderous
tone, which we seldom see in America; and in a hilly and unfertile
country there are usually extensive patches of the larch, having a
brown hue. The English elm is the most common tree in small parks or
about country-houses. It appears, at a little distance, more like our
hickory, when the latter grows upon a rich soil, and is not cramped, as
sometimes in our river intervals, than any other American tree.

There seems to me to be a certain peculiarity in English foliage,
which I can but little more than allude to, not having the skill to
describe. You seem to see each particular leaf, (instead of a confused
leafiness,) more than in our trees; or it is as if the face of each
leaf was parallel, and more equally lighted than in our foliage. It is
perhaps only owing to a greater density, and better filling up, and
more even growth of the outer twigs of the trees, than is common in our
drier climate. I think that our maple woods have more resemblance to it
than others.

There is usually a much milder light over an English landscape than an
American, and the distance and shady parts are more indistinct. It is
rare that there is not a haziness, slightly like that of our Indian
summer in the atmosphere, and the colours of every thing, except of
the foliage are less brilliant and vivacious than we are accustomed
to. The sublime or the picturesque in nature is much more rare in
England, except on the sea-coast, than in America; but there is every
where a great deal of quiet, peaceful, graceful beauty, which the
works of man have generally added to, and which I remember but little
at home that will compare with. This Herefordshire reminds me of the
valley in Connecticut, between Middletown and Springfield. The valley
of the Mohawk and the upper part of the Hudson, is also in some parts
English-like.

* * * * *

Soon after leaving Warminster, began a very different style of
landscape from what I have before seen: long ranges and large groups
of high hills with gentle and gracefully undulating slopes; broad and
deep cells between and within them, through which flow in tortuous
channels streamlets of exceedingly pure, sparkling water. These hills
are bare of trees, except rarely a close body of them, covering a space
of perhaps an acre, and evidently planted by man. Within the shelter
of these you will sometimes see that there is a large farm-house with
a small range of stables. The valleys are cultivated, but the hills
in greater part are covered, without the slightest variety, except
what arises from the changing contour of the ground, with short, wiry
grass, standing thinly, but sufficiently close to give the appearance
at a little distance from the eye, of a smooth, velvety, green surface.
Among the first of the hills I observed, at a high elevation, long
angular ramparts and earth-works, all greened over. Within them at the
summit of the hill were several extensive tumuli, evidently artificial,
(though I find nothing about it in the books,) and on the top of one
of these was a shepherd and dog and a large flock of sheep, clear and
coldly distinct, and appearing of gigantic size against the leaden
clouds behind. In the course of the day I met with many of these
flocks, and nearly all of the hill-land seemed given up to them. I
was upon the border, in fact, of the great _Southdown_ district, and,
during the next week, the greater part of the country through which we
were travelling, was of the same general character of landscape, though
frequently not as green, varied, and pleasing as in these outskirts of
it.

THE DESCRIPTION OF SCENERY

There is always a strong temptation upon the traveller to endeavor to
so describe fine scenery, and the feelings which it has occasioned
him, that they may be reproduced to the imagination of his friends.
Judging from my own experience, this purpose always fails. I have never
yet seen any thing celebrated in scenery, of which I had previously
obtained a correct conception. Certain striking, prominent points,
that the power of language has been most directed to the painting
of, almost invariably disappoint, and seem little and commonplace,
after the exaggerated forms which have been brought before the mind’s
eye. Beauty, grandeur, impressiveness, in any way, from scenery, is
not often to be found in a few prominent, distinguishable features,
but in the manner and the unobserved materials with which these are
connected and combined. Clouds, lights, states of the atmosphere, and
circumstances that we cannot always detect, affect all landscapes, and
especially landscapes in which the vicinity of a body of water is an
element, much more than we are often aware. So it is that the impatient
first glance of the young traveller, or the impertinent critical stare
of the old tourist, is almost never satisfied, if the honest truth be
admitted, in what it has been led to previously imagine. I have heard
“Niagara is a mill-dam,” “Rome is a humbug.”

The deep sentiments of nature that we sometimes seem to have been made
the confidant of, when among the mountains, or on the moors or the
ocean,--even those of man wrought out in architecture and sculpture
and painting, or of man working in unison with Nature, as sometimes in
the English parks, on the Rhine, and here on the Isle of Wight,--such
revealings are beyond words; they never could be transcribed into
note-books and diaries, and so descriptions of them become caricatures,
and when we see them, we at first say we are disappointed that we find
not the monsters we were told of.

Dame Nature is a gentlewoman. No guide’s fee will obtain you her
favour, no abrupt demand; hardly will she bear questioning, or direct,
curious gazing at her beauty; least of all, will she reveal it truly
to the hurried glance of the passing traveller, while he waits for his
dinner, or fresh horses, or fuel and water; always we must quietly and
unimpatiently wait upon it. Gradually and silently the charm comes over
us; the beauty has entered our souls; we know not exactly when or how,
but going away we remember it with a tender, subdued, filial-like joy.

Does this seem nonsense to you? Very likely, for I am talking of what I
don’t understand. Nature treats me so strangely; it’s past my speaking
sensibly of, and yet, as a part of my travelling experience, I would
speak of it. At times I seem myself to be her favourite, and she brings
me to my knees in deep feeling, such as she blesses no other with;
oftener I see others in ecstasies, while I am left to sentimentalize
and mourn, or to be critical, and sneering, and infidel. Nonsense
still; but tell me, do you think it is only for greed of trouts that
your great and sensitive man lingers long, intently stooping over dark
pools in the spray of the mountain torrents, or stealing softly a way
through the bending rushes, or kneeling lowly on the darkest verdure of
the shaded meadow? What else? I know not what he thinks, but of this I
am assured: while his mind is most intent upon his trivial sport, his
heart and soul will be far more absorbent of the rugged strength, the
diffuse, impetuous brilliance, the indefinite gliding grace, or the
peaceful twilight loveliness, of the scenes around him, than if he went
out searching, labouring directly for it as for bread and fame.

The greater part of the Isle of Wight is more dreary, desolate, bare,
and monotonous than any equal extent of land you probably ever saw
in America--would be, rather, if it were not that you are rarely
out of sight of the sea; and no landscape, of which that is a part,
ever can be without variety and ever-changing interest. It is, in
fact _down-land_ in the interior, exactly like that I described in
Wiltshire, and sometimes breaking down into such bright dells as I
there told of. But on the south shore it is rocky, craggy; and after
you have walked through a rather dull country, though pleasing on the
whole, for hours after landing, you come gradually to where the majesty
of vastness, peculiar to the downs and the ocean, alternates or mingles
with dark, picturesque, rugged ravines, chasms, and water-gaps, sublime
rock-masses, and soft, warm smiling inviting dells and dingles; and,
withal, there is a strange and fascinating enrichment of half-tropical
foliage, so deep, graceful, and luxuriant, as I never saw before any
where in the world. All this district is thickly inhabited, and yet so
well covered with verdure, or often so tastefully appropriate--quiet,
cosy, ungenteel, yet elegant--are the cottages, that they often
add to, rather than insult and destroy, the natural charm of their
neighbourhood. I am sorry to say, that among the later erections there
are a number of very strong exceptions to this remark.

* * * * *

As to Mr. Olmsted’s travels in 1856, we have a memorandum that he
visited Rome, Genoa, Florence, Prague, Leipzig, and Dresden as well as
London. We have a delightful reference to his brief Italian visit in a
letter written to Charles Eliot, then abroad, March 4, 1886:

I think that you want to get hints for gardening in dry, hot regions
of our country from Italy, Spain and south of France. You do not, it
seems to me, get much of value from the show villas to which you go
as a matter of course. But I remember modester places which struck me
as delightful, and one or two that I cannot now specify I made my way
into and faintly recall always when I think of what should be done in
California, Colorado, New Mexico, or really in Georgia and Florida. I
speak of a month in all Italy more than thirty years ago when I had no
more thought of being a landscape architect than of being a Cardinal.
Yet my experience has been of much value to me.

FOOTNOTES:

[15] In regard to the preparations for his trip, Mr. Olmsted wrote in
the Preface of his _Walks and Talks_: “With a hearty country appetite
for narrative, I have spent, previous to my own journey, a great many
long winter evenings in reading the books so frequently written by our
literary tourists, upon England; and although I do not recollect one
of them, the author of which was a farmer, or whose habits of life,
professional interests, associations in society, and ordinary standards
of comparison were not altogether different from my own, I remember
none from which I did not derive entertainment and instruction.”

[16]

LIST OF CUTS
DRAWN ON WOOD BY M. FIELD
FROM SKETCHES BY THE AUTHOR

1. The School-House (vignette, title page).
2. The English Coaster (calm).
3. The English Coaster (squalls).
4. The English Plough (vertical).
5. The English Plough (horizontal).
6. The Timber House (old farm-house).
7. Old English Domestic Architecture (Chester, 16th century).
8. Old English Domestic Architecture (Chester, 16th Century).
9. The Clod Crusher.
10. The Uley Cultivator.
11. The Stage Wagon.
12. Old English Domestic Architecture (the village schoolmaster’s
cottage).

[17] Mr. Olmsted was fond of quoting this passage in his later
professional writing.

CHAPTER VIII

SOUTHERN TRIPS, 1852-1854

From the letters and books relating to his Southern journeys, there is
less of scenery or of rural art. He was concerned with giving a true
picture of the economic and social conditions in the South, especially
as affected by slavery, and his observations were directed mainly to
men and their affairs rather than to their landscape surroundings.
There are, however, numerous passages of great interest in this regard,
especially on the Texas journey of 1853-4. Several are here given.

One is written from San Antonio, Texas, March 12, 1854, to a friend.

Meantime we are traveling about, without definite aim, in an original
but, on the whole, very pleasant fashion. The spring here is very
beautiful, the prairies are not mere seas of coarse grass, but one of
varied surface, with thick wooded borders and many trees and shrubs,
standing singly and in small islands. Having been generally burnt
over or the rank grass fed closely down, they have very frequently
a fine close lawn-like turf, making an extremely rich landscape. At
this season, moreover, there are a very great variety of pretty,
small, modest flowers, such as I send you, growing often very thickly
in the grass. There is an evergreen shrub rare, and new to me, which
is the finest shrub I have ever seen.[18] Its leaves are Acacia-like
but evergreen, bright and glossy like Laurel, and it bears a cluster
like those of the Horsechestnut, of deep blue and lilac bloom, with a
perfume like that of grapes.

THE WESTERN PRAIRIES

The impression as we emerged, strengthened by a warm, calm atmosphere,
was very charming. The live-oaks, standing alone or in picturesque
groups near and far upon the clean sward, which rolled in long waves
that took, on their various slopes, bright light or half shadows from
the afternoon sun, contributed mainly to an effect which was very
new and striking, though still natural, like a happy new melody.
We stopped, and, from the trunk of a superb old tree, preserved a
sketched outline of its low gnarled limbs, and of the scene beyond
them.

Had we known that this was the first one of a thousand similar scenes,
that were now to charm us day after day, we should have, perhaps,
spared ourselves the pains. We were, in fact just entering a vast
region of which live-oak prairies are the characteristic. It extends
throughout the greater part of Western Texas, as far as the small
streams near San Antonio, beyond which the dwarf mesquit and its
congeners are found. The live-oak is almost the only tree away from
the river bottoms, and everywhere gives the marked features to the
landscape.

The live-oaks are often short, and even stunted in growth, lacking the
rich vigor and full foliage of those further east. Occasionally, a
tree is met with, which has escaped its share of injury from prairie
burnings and northers, and has grown into a symmetrical and glorious
beauty. But such are comparatively rare. Most of them are meagerly
furnished with leaves, and as the leaf, in shape, size, and hue, has
a general similarity to that of the olive, the distant effect is
strikingly similar. As far West as beyond the Guadalupe, they are
thickly hung with the gray Spanish moss, whose weird color, and slow,
pendulous motions, harmonize peculiarly with the tone of the tree
itself, especially where, upon the round, rocky, mountain ledges, its
distorted roots cling, disputing a scant nourishment with the stunted
grass.

* * * * *

SAN ANTONIO

We have no city, except, perhaps, New Orleans, that can vie, in point
of the picturesque interest that attaches to odd and antiquated
foreignness, with San Antonio. Its jumble of races, costumes,
languages and buildings; its religious ruins, holding to an antiquity,
for us, indistinct enough to breed an unaccustomed solemnity; its
remote, isolated, outposted situation, and the vague conviction
that it is the first of a new class of conquered cities into whose
decaying streets our rattling life is to be infused, combine with the
heroic touches in its history to enliven and satisfy your traveller’s
curiosity.

... [The streets] are laid out with tolerable regularity, parallel
with the sides of the main plaza, and are pretty distinctly shared
among the nations that use them.

* * * * *

In the outskirts of the town are many good residences, recently
erected by Americans. They are mostly of the creamy limestone, which
is found in abundance near by. It is of a very agreeable shade,
readily sawed and cut, sufficiently durable, and can be procured at
a moderate cost. When the grounds around them shall have been put in
correspondence with the style of these houses, they will make enviable
homes.

* * * * *

THE SAN ANTONIO SPRING

There are, besides the missions, several pleasant points for
excursions in the neighborhood, particularly those to the San
Antonio and San Pedro Springs. The latter is a wooded spot of great
beauty, but a mile or two from the town, and boasts a restaurant and
beer-garden beyond its natural attractions. The San Antonio Spring may
be classed as of the first water among the gems of the natural world.
The whole river gushes up in one sparkling burst from the earth.
It has all the beautiful accompaniments of a smaller spring, moss,
pebbles, seclusion, sparkling sunbeams and dense overhanging luxuriant
foliage. The effect is overpowering. It is beyond your possible
conceptions of a spring.

* * * * *

SEGUIN

About a mile from the river we entered Seguin. It is the prettiest
town in Texas; at least of those we saw. It stands on elevated ground,
in a grove of shaggy live-oaks, which have been left untouched, in
their natural number and position, the streets straying through them
in convenient directions, not always at right angles.

The following selections are from the _Back Country_ book:

THE LANDSCAPE--ROSE HEDGES

For some miles about St. Francisville the landscape has an open,
suburban character, with residences indicative of rapidly accumulating
wealth, and advancement in luxury among the proprietors. For twenty
miles to the north of the town, there is on both sides a succession
of large sugar and cotton plantations. Much land still remains
uncultivated, however. The roadside fences are generally hedges of
roses--Cherokee and sweetbrier. These are planted first by the side
of a common rail fence, which, while they are young, supports them in
the manner of a trellis; as they grow older they fall each way, and
mat together, finally forming a confused, sprawling, slovenly thicket,
often ten feet in breadth and four to six feet high. Trumpet creepers,
grape-vines, green-briers, and in very rich soil, cane, grow up
through the mat of roses, and add to its strength. It is not as pretty
as a trimmer hedge, yet very agreeable, and the road being sometimes
narrow, deep, and lane like, delightful memories of England were often
brought to mind.

* * * * *

THE BLUFF

... The grand feature of Natchez is the bluff, terminating in an
abrupt precipice over the river, with the public garden upon it. Of
this I never had heard, and when, after seeing my horse dried off and
eating his oats with great satisfaction,--the first time he has ever
tasted oats, I suppose,--I strolled off to see the town, I came upon
it by surprise. I entered a gate and walked up a slope, supposing that
I was approaching the ridge or summit of a hill, and expecting to see
beyond it a corresponding slope and the town again, continuing in
terraced streets to the river. I found myself, almost at the moment I
discovered that it was not so, on the very edge of a stupendous cliff,
and before me an indescribably vast expanse of forest, extending on
every hand to a hazy horizon, in which, directly in front of me, swung
the round, red, setting sun.

Through the otherwise unbroken forest, the Mississippi had opened a
passage for itself, forming a perfect arc, the hither shore of the
middle of the curve being hidden under the crest of the cliff, and
the two ends lost in the vast obscurity of the Great West. Overlooked
from such an eminence, the size of the Mississippi can be realized,--a
thing difficult under ordinary circumstances; but though the fret of
a swelling torrent is not wanting, it is perceptible only as the most
delicate chasing upon the broad, gleaming expanse of polished steel,
which at once shamed all my previous conceptions of the appearance
of the greatest of rivers. Coming closer to the edge and looking
downward, you see the lower town, its roofs with water flowing all
around them, and its pigmy people wading, and laboring to carry upward
their goods and furniture, in danger from a rising movement of the
great water. Poor people, emigrants and niggers only.

I lay down, and would have reposed my mind in the infinite vision
westward, but was presently disturbed by a hog which came grunting
near me, rooting in the poor turf of this wonderful garden. I rose and
walked its length. Little more has been done than to inclose a space
along the edge, which would have been dangerous to build upon, to cut
out some curving alleys now recaptured by the grass and weeds, and to
plant a few succulent trees. A road to the lower town, cutting through
it, is crossed by slight wooden foot-bridges, and there are some rough
plank benches--adorned with stenciled “medical” advertisements. Some
shrubs are planted on the crumbling face of the cliff, so near the top
that the swine can obtain access to them. A man, bearded and smoking,
and a woman with him, sitting at the extreme end, were the only
visitors except myself and the swine.

FOOTNOTES:

[18] This plant has been identified by the Botanist of the U. S.
Bureau of Plant Industries as that commonly called Frijolito or
Frijolillo (_Sophora secundiflora_).

CHAPTER IX

REPUTATION IN 1857

Although in his _Walks and Talks_ the public had ample evidence of Mr.
Olmsted’s taste in scenery, he was known principally as a literary
man, a writer on agriculture, and a student of our social and economic
conditions. His reasoned observations had been widely circulated
through his letters in the New York _Times_ and the books subsequently
made up from these,[19] which are still considered to give the truest
picture of the South before the war. Mr. Raymond of the _Times_ is
quoted in 1854 as thinking “highly of his powers of observation and
detailed reporting, giving just the facts that people want.”

Among his intimates he was known as an enthusiast and keen analyst in
debate. It is pleasant to quote two references to these qualities in
letters, which were prophetic, in spirit if not in exact detail:

BOSTON, May 8, 1847.

(From F. J. KINGSBURY to J. H. OLMSTED.)

“It is pretty much all true what you say about Fred. But living and
growing and experience will have to answer for him instead of college
discipline. He is an enthusiast by nature though, and all the Greek
and Latin in the world wouldn’t have driven that out of him. Well the
world needs such men, and one thing is curious, disappointments never
seem to trouble them. They must in the nature of things meet with them
often and yet they go right on in the same old way just as if it had
not happened. They never get disheartened. I think Fred will be one of
that sort. Many of his favorite schemes will go to naught but he’ll
throw it aside and try another and spoil that and forget them both
while you or I might have been blubbering over the ruins of the first.”

And in the _Life and Letters of Charles Loring Brace_,[20] there is a
letter probably late in 1848:

“I must say Fred is getting to argue with the utmost keenness,--a
regular Dr. Taylor mind in its analytic power! But what is queerest,
never able to exercise that power except in discussion! He is another
Taylorite in his virtue theory. I shouldn’t be surprised if he turned
out something rather remarkable among men yet....”

Although he had not had a chance to prove his executive ability in any
public capacity, he was known as a capable manager in the handling of
farm labor. Very early in his agricultural career, there is an evidence
of this in a letter (1848) to his brother:

I finally got things fixed so I could leave without much anxiety.
Robert returned, pretty well recovered; and work cut out, with written
directions, for every man of such sort that they will be profitably
and seasonably employed ’til I return, without much need of judgment.

His democratic ideals in general were well understood from his
writings. There are some passages from letters written early in his
career as a landscape architect which further interpret these with
special regard to his chosen profession.

The letter of 1860, addressed to a subordinate who had referred to the
difference in their “stations in life,” contains the following:

The phrase “stations in life” is ordinarily used with a meaning the
propriety of which I am not accustomed to recognize. That I have
enjoyed greater advantages of education in some respects than most of
the keepers is true, but so far as this means book-education, there
is no man among you who has it not in his power to obtain a better
education than mine, during the ordinary period of reserve duty,
within a very few years. As for my education in other respects, I
mean in those respects which if anything entitle me to my present
position, I have obtained it by reason of no advantages which many of
you might not have had. The best of my travelling has been done on
foot at a cost of 70 cents a day, or working my passage as a common
seaman. My practical horticultural education, I mean that not gained
by reading, was in part acquired while engaged as a laborer, looking
to working men as my masters and teachers. It is then impossible for
me to have any hearty or habitual respect for the superiority of one
man over another in station in life except as superiority of station
means higher responsibility and larger duty.

In 1863, when the political situation on the Central Park made it
difficult for Mr. Olmsted to entertain the idea of returning to his
work there, he wrote to Mr. Vaux from California:

But you know that the advantages offered in the office of the
Superintendent for spending a good deal of my life in the park,
being with the people in it, watching over it and cherishing it in
every way,--living in it and being a part of it (whatever else there
was),--were valued by me at a valuation which you thought nonsensical,
childish and unworthy of me; but it was my valuation of them and
not yours which was concerned. And that this was something deeper
than a whim you know, for you know that it existed essentially years
before it attached itself to the Central Park as was shown by the
fact that while others gravitated to pictures, architecture, Alps,
libraries, high life and low life when travelling, I had gravitated
to parks,--spent all my spare time in them, when living in London for
instance, and this with no purpose whatever except a gratification
which came from sources which the Superintendence of the Park would
have made easy and cheap to me, to say the least, every day of my
life. What I wanted in London and in Paris and in Brussels and
everywhere I went in Europe--what I wanted in New York in 1857, I
want now _and this from no regard for Art or fame or money_.

Mr. Olmsted’s own summary of his fitness for the opportunity which
presented itself in 1857, he gave in _Spoils of the Park_, written in
1882, to be reprinted in full in Volume Two of this work.

It is worth while also, perhaps, to give in conclusion two of the
endorsements submitted with his Central Park application in 1857. (See
facsimile opposite.)

Similar petitions bear the signatures of Russell Sturgis, Horace
Greeley, George H. Putnam, Henry Holt, Whitelaw Reid, William Cullen
Bryant, Bayard Taylor, Alexander Hamilton, Philip Schuyler, John M.
Scribner, August Belmont, Morris K. Jesup, Henry Havemeyer, E. D.
Morgan, Roosevelt & Co., and many others.

Pleasantest of all was the letter from Professor Asa Gray:

“HARVARD UNIVERSITY
“BOTANIC GARDEN, August 24, 1857.

“TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS OF THE NEW YORK PARK

“DEAR SIR

“I have just learned that _F. Law Olmsted, Esq._, is about to offer
himself as a candidate for the superintendency of the Central Park,
New York.

“I desire very simply and sincerely to say that I know Mr. Olmsted
well, and that I regard him as _eminently fitted_ for that position. I
do not know another person so well fitted for it in all respects, both
on practical and general scientific grounds and I have no doubt that
if the choice falls upon him, he will do great honor to the situation
and to his own already high and honorable reputation.

“I have the honor to be

with great respect
Your obedient faithful servant
“(sgd.) ASA GRAY.
“Professor of Botany &c.
“Harvard University.”

[Illustration: Facsimile of Petition to Secure Appointment of Mr.
Olmsted as Superintendent of Central Park, 1857]

FOOTNOTES:

[19] _Seaboard Slave States_, _Journey in Texas_, and _Back Country_.

[20] Published 1894, p. 61-62.

PART III. AMERICAN LANDSCAPE GARDENING IN 1857

PART III

AMERICAN LANDSCAPE GARDENING IN 1857

In September, 1857, when Frederick Law Olmsted was appointed
Superintendent of the Central Park in New York, there was no
well-established profession of landscape gardening in the United
States and the term landscape architect[21] was unknown. The untimely
death of Andrew Jackson Downing had come five years earlier. It was
not until the very end of 1857 that Downing’s architectural associate
and successor, Calvert Vaux, invited the new Superintendent of the
Central Park to participate with him in the competition for the design,
thus beginning a partnership which brought about public recognition
of a new professional field. It is worth mentioning that the New York
newspapers of the day regarded only a few of the thirty-three[22] plans
submitted in the competition as worth attention, and characterized
many as puerile and entirely unsuitable. Of the four premiated plans,
the second was submitted by Mr. Samuel I. Gustin, the superintendent
of planting at the Park, the third by Messrs. Miller and McIntosh, two
employees in the office of the Superintendent (Mr. Olmsted), and the
fourth by an architect, Mr. Howard Daniels,--none of these gentlemen
apparently enjoying any distinction in the public eye. The competition
plan of Colonel Viele, Chief Engineer, whose original design for the
Park had been rejected before the institution of the competition, found
no favor with the commissioners. Mr. Ignaz A. Pilat, an Austrian, said
to have designed the grounds of Prince Metternich, and who had been
engaged since 1856 on a botanical survey of the ground of the Central
Park, submitted a design, although not in competition. It would appear
that no distinguished foreign designer participated, although the
Central Park Commissioners had hoped for this, and had gone so far as
to appropriate money for the traveling expenses of the “engineers or
other persons in chief” by whom the Bois de Boulogne and Birkenhead
Park had been laid out and constructed, could they be induced to visit
New York for the purpose of giving the Board “aid and information.”

At this time in Boston the firm of Copeland and Cleveland (R. Morris
Copeland and H. W. S. Cleveland) was engaged in the professional
practice of landscape gardening, mainly the laying-out of suburban
and country estates. In 1856 these gentlemen had published a very
sensible pamphlet modestly entitled _A Few Words on the Central Park_,
in which they urged on the City of New York the ultimate economy of a
comprehensive plan. Mr. Charles Follen, also of Boston, was in practice
at the time, styling himself “architect and landscape gardener,” in his
pamphlet, _Suggestions_, intended for estate owners, issued in 1859.
Both Mr. Copeland and Mr. Follen submitted plans in the Central Park
competition.

In a book published at Cincinnati early in 1855, called _Practical
Landscape Gardening_, the author, G. M. Kern, refers to a flourishing
state of the art of laying out grounds in the Mississippi region and
mentions especially Adolph Strauch, of Cincinnati, now remembered as
the designer of Spring Grove Cemetery, which he undertook in that
same year, 1855. But the field in the West as in the East was mainly
restricted to private grounds, and the “many representatives” mentioned
by Mr. Kern remained obscure, most of them perhaps _landschaftsgärtner_
emigrated from Europe with the influx of German settlers to the Middle
West at this period.

Outside of Downing’s writings, which were widely known, there were
few books on landscape gardening by American writers, and few English
books had gone into American editions. Even in 1860, Mr. C. A. Dana, as
editor of Appleton’s _New American Cyclopedia_, wrote to Mr. Olmsted,
from whom Mr. Dana was soliciting an article on the title _Park_: “It
is curious that no Cyclopedia has an article on _Parks_ or _Landscape
Gardening_;” remarking also: “We have no article, nor is there in any
part of the work, as yet, anything bearing on that subject. Under
Downing we give a simple biography of the man and a list of his
principal works.”

Mr. Olmsted frequently commented, in contrast, on the advancement of
the profession of landscape gardening in Europe. In his article for
Appleton’s Cyclopedia, we find several passages, quite as true in 1857
as in 1861 when they were published, bearing on this point:

Almost every large town in the civilized world now has public pleasure
grounds in some form....

Birkenhead park [which Mr. Olmsted had visited in 1850][23] is a piece
of ground of 185 acres in a suburb of Liverpool, and is surrounded
by villas the grounds of which connect with it. Though small, it
is by its admirable plan the most complete, and for its age the
most agreeable park in Europe. It was designed and its construction
superintended by Sir Joseph Paxton and Mr. Kemp....

In the United States there is, as yet, scarcely a finished park or
promenade ground deserving mention. In the few small fields of rank
hay grasses and spindle-trunked trees, to which the name is sometimes
applied, the custom of the promenade has never been established. Yet
there is scarcely a town or thriving village in which there is not
found some sort of inconvenient and questionable social exchange of
this nature. Sometimes it is a graveyard, sometimes a beach or wharf,
sometimes a certain part of a certain street; sometimes interest
in a literary or a charitable, a military, or even a mercantile
enterprise, is the ostensible object which brings people together.
But in its European signification the promenade exists only in the
limited grounds attached to the capitol and to the “white house” at
Washington, and in the yet half-made park of New York....

Landscape gardening in the United States[24] has hitherto been chiefly
directed to the improvement of naturally wooded scenery, and that on
a small scale, yet in many instances, of which the best are on the
banks of the Hudson, with admirable results. Publicly the art has
been chiefly directed, also, to the improvement of naturally wooded
picturesque scenery in the formation of rural cemeteries.

Turning from an analysis of the actual condition of the landscape art,
Mr. Olmsted mentions certain sources of inspiration:

In the various _Picturesque Tours_ of Gilpin, and the voluminous
_Essays on the Picturesque_ by Sir Uvedale Price, the true principles
of art applicable to the creation of scenery were laboriously studied
and carefully defined. Shenstone, Mason and Knight, by their poems,
materially aided the revivification of the art. In more recent times
the good service of Repton, Loudon, Paxton, Kemp, our own Downing, and
other artists and writers on the subject during the present century
merits warm acknowledgment. Downing’s works especially should be in
every village school library.

A horticultural atmosphere pervaded the landscape work of 1857.
Downing’s _Horticulturist_, as its name implies, had up to his
death served not only as his own mouthpiece but also a medium of
communication for the many cultivated gentlemen who were apt to prefer
interesting specimen plants to picturesque compositions. Downing
himself ran a nursery and reflected to a less degree the taste of the
period for a horticultural style. That conditions in the United States
were in general scarcely different thirty years later shows against
what odds the new profession had to make headway. Writing in 1888 to
one of a board of park commissioners in Rochester, Mr. Olmsted might
almost equally have been addressing a commissioner of 1858, had there
been park boards at that time outside of New York City.

With reference to your undertaking there is less room for choice
than may be supposed among the landscape gardeners or landscape
architects of the country. (I have come to prefer the latter term,
tho’ I much objected to it when it was first given me. I prefer it
because it helps to establish the important idea of the distinction
of my profession from that of gardening, as that of architecture from
building--the distinction of an art of _design_.)

Of those who have given themselves the title of landscape gardeners
not one of many more than a hundred have the smallest right to it.
As a rule they are further from it than the average citizen of fair
general education. This because the most of them have passed the best
educational years of their lives in close and toilsome confinement
to matters horticultural, botanical and on a small scale decorative,
pursuing a course in this and other respects in which faculties of
close observation and handicraft skill are cultivated. A course in
fact such as you might prescribe for a patient whom you wished to wean
from too great susceptibility to and interest in grasses, bushes and
trees _as components of natural scenery_. The gardening to which they
apply the term landscape is just that, in its essence, which the term
_landscape_ gardening was first used as a means to rule out of view.

Hamerton in his treatise of Landscape says that “scape” in this word
was from the same root and properly has the same significance with
ship, e. g. in friendship--meaning, that is to say, the comprehensive
state, to the eye, of the land or region to which it is applied. (I
should rather say the character, broadly considered, of the scenery
of a region.) Of late the training of gardeners has been not at all
to landscape in this sense but to elements, incidents and features of
the materials of landscape considered by themselves; to make them
artists possibly in a certain way, as an ordinary house furnisher may
be trained to something of art in respect to articles of furniture,
pictures, books and bric-à-brac, but not artists in respect to
scenery, as scenery acts in the emotional nature of some of us. That
a training which is innocently assumed to be a training in landscape
gardening is a training in fact away from it, I have often seen
evidences. For example, a man came to me with a letter of introduction
in which it was stated that he was a landscape gardener. As the best
feast that I could offer a visitor of this description fresh from the
old world, I dropped my business for a day to take him up the Hudson.
It was soon apparent that he took less than ordinary interest in its
natural scenery. When we came near to the best of it I had to urge him
to move to a position on the boat where he could see it. Having done
so, in a minute or two he left it, and when near West Point, I found
him below sitting at a table with a bottle of porter. Yet when I took
him to the grounds of a friend’s country-seat he proved to be really
an enthusiast in particular matters of gardening.

I have seen much of two of the most accomplished gardeners in the
United States but I never saw either of them look at anything a
stone’s throw away or show the slightest interest in or understanding
of landscape. There is nothing to prevent them from presenting
themselves in good faith as landscape gardeners. In conversing with
one previously called a florist but who had offered himself and been
appointed landscape gardener of an important work, I found that he
applied the term ‘harmony,’ with reference to the grouping of trees,
on the supposition that it meant botanical kinship. In the gap between
two masses of fine indigenous foliage he had planted some Chinese
curios not only in complete discord with them but where, if they lived
long, they would screen off his finest distant view.

Even of landscape gardening rightly so called, the practice of most
has been at best upon small grounds or upon grounds in which the
convenience and probable wants of but a single family and its selected
guests were to be considered, a good design for which is a very
different thing from good design for grounds in which the movements
of many thousands are to be provided for and precautions taken not
only against careless and erratic movements but against occasional
malevolent torrents of a disorderly rabble.

Of the thirty-four plans of so many assumed landscape gardeners
offered to Commissioners of the Central Park in 1857, but one made
the slightest provision for requirements which everyone now sees it
was absolutely necessary should be provided for. If any one of the
others had been adopted an almost complete reconstruction of the Park
would before this time have been necessary. Among the plans offered,
that which, from the opportunities and well-earned reputation of the
planner, I had expected to be the best, aimed at nothing more than a
connected and diversified _series_ of effects appropriate to confined
private suburban pleasure grounds.

Of twenty-two plans obtained ten years ago by the Boston Park
Commissioners--several of which had cost the planners over a
thousand dollars each, and were most painstakingly studied--even
that which they adjudged to be the best was after a few months
entirely abandoned. (They finally came to me for a plan which when
published was bitterly denounced, declared publicly, by an alleged
landscape gardener of large experience, wholly impracticable and so
held up to scorn that an association of citizens--large property
holders--privately employed a civil engineer to professionally
examine and report upon it. It has been carried out with no essential
variation and all objections have fallen to the ground.)

I have written all the foregoing to justify the opinion I now give
you that in all Europe and America, among all the men who with
no dishonest intention take the name of landscape gardeners (or
architects) there are very few who have shown or are likely to
possess any respectable power of dealing with problems of the class
that properly come before the Park Commissioners of a large and
growing city.

Of those among them likely to be available to you the man of highest
proved ability is my old partner Calvert Vaux of New York. There
are respects of design in which he is probably the superior of any
living man.... There are in the country to my knowledge but two other
(properly speaking) landscape designers who have had any experience
that would specially qualify them to advise you.

One of them is H. W. S. Cleveland. He is a cultivated Boston born and
bred man, has been employed in responsible positions on the public
parks of Brooklyn, Chicago and Minneapolis. He is the oldest landscape
gardener in the country....

The other is J. Weidenmann, the author of a book published by the
Appletons[25] on landscape gardening; a Swiss by birth. He laid out
and superintended for years, the public park at Hartford, Conn....

No doubt there are other promising men whom I don’t know or think of,
for the profession is not organized and every man fights on his own
hook.

There are three or four men who tell fine stories of themselves as
landscape gardeners, even in some cases showing what appear to be
reputable testimonials, whom I should like to caution you against but
I do not feel quite justified in mentioning them by names. One, an
Englishman, I have good reason to believe a knave. Another, a clever
young fiddler, comes from the north of Europe originally, later from
Paris. Another has published a pamphlet on Landscape Gardening in
which he aims to appear a man of Science and shows himself a hopeless
ignoramus.

* * * * *

If there were fewer pretenders to the landscape art in 1857, there
was also an even less developed public taste, and Mr. Olmsted could
scarcely have been precipitated into a field where his already
recognized talent of literary expression could have joined to greater
advantage with his appreciation of scenery, his latent genius as an
artist, and his knowledge as a practical farmer.

FOOTNOTES:

[21] The term “Landscape Architecture” in a restricted sense (of
Architecture in Landscape) was used in England by Laing Meason in 1828
as the title of a work which contained a discussion of Italian villas:
_The Landscape Architecture of the Great Painters of Italy_. This work
was referred to in a Review of Downing’s _Cottage Residences_ and
two other books on landscape gardening, which appeared in the _North
American Review_, Oct., 1844, p. 308.

[22] Two more designs were submitted, but not in competition. The
editors discovered in the New York Public Library a printed copy of
“Catalogue of Plans for the Improvement of the Central Park” annotated
by one of the Park Commissioners with the names of the supposed authors
of the thirty-five sets of drawings.

[23] See p. 95.

[24] Mr. Olmsted does not mention the work of M. André Parmentier, of
Brooklyn, whom Downing considered of great importance (see Downing’s
_Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening_, 1841), and several other
earlier amateur and professional landscape gardeners, especially in
Virginia and Pennsylvania.

[25] Mr. Olmsted must have meant _Beautifying Country Homes_, published
by the Orange Judd Company.

A Journey
in the Back Country in the
Year 1854

By
Frederick Law Olmsted

Author of “A Journey in the Seaboard Slave States,” etc.

(_Originally issued in 1860._) _2 Volumes._ _8vo._

Readers for entertainment will be fascinated by this vivid portrayal
of the picturesque ideas, customs, and manners of Southerners before
the Civil War. Students of history will find no more reliable or
more abundant record of observations on Southern social conditions,
especially negro slavery.

G. P. Putnam’s Sons
New York London

_A Work of Distinction_

A Journey in the
Seaboard Slave States

1853-1854

With Remarks on Their Economy

Frederick Law Olmsted

Author of “Walks and Talks with an American
Farmer in New England”

With a Biographical Sketch by
Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr.
and an Introduction by W. P. Trent

_Second Edition. 2 Vols., with Portrait. Octavo_

Although published nearly fifty years ago, the work today is not
only valuable, but is intensely interesting reading. It depicts the
horrors of slavery, and this is done in calm judicial manner. It is in
no degree sensational, but presents the facts as seen or heard from
credible witnesses, and is invaluable to students of the causes of the
Civil War.

“The reader who cares to understand the Civil War should read the
narrative by Frederick Law Olmsted entitled ‘A Journey in the Seaboard
Slave States.’ Mr. Olmsted’s volumes present as interesting a picture
of the South before its great catastrophe as is given by Arthur Young
of France on the eve of its revolution.”

--Morley’s _Life of Gladstone_.

G. P. Putnam’s Sons
New York London

*** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "Frederick Law Olmsted : Landscape architect" ***

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