Frederick Law Olmsted: Home

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Or a map of the entire Emerald Necklace.

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The papers of farmer, writer, reformer, landscape architect, urban and suburban planner, and conservationist Frederick Law Olmsted (1822-1903) consist of approximately 24,000 items (roughly 47,300 images), most of which were digitized from 60 reels of previously produced microfilm. The collection, spanning from 1777 to 1952, with the bulk dating 1838-1903, contains materials on both Olmsted's private and professional life.
Find these records at the Library of Congress website.

This Rotunda edition of The Papers of Frederick Law Olmsted reproduces in their entirety the contents of ten volumes from the original letterpress edition published by Johns Hopkins University Press: all nine volumes from the Main Series, and Supplementary Series volume 1.

Find the digital contents here.

Visit the Olmsted 200 website to learn more about Olmsted and his work:

• He is most famous for his work as a landscape architect, designing 100 public parks to improve the human condition and conserve nature.
• He also served as first Executive Secretary of the U.S. Sanitary Commission, the forerunner of the American Red Cross.
• His writings for the New York Daily News in the 1850s argued for the abolition of slavery.

Find Boston-area events celebrating Frederick Law Olmsted's 200th birthday.

Dellinger, Matt. "Frederick Law Olmsted’s War on Disease and Disunity." New Yorker, May 16, 2020. https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/frederick-law-olmsteds-war-on-disease-and-disunity. Accessed March 11, 2022.

Green, Jared. "The Injustices of the South Shaped Olmsted’s Vision of Landscape Architecture." The Dirt,  June 22, 2021. https://dirt.asla.org/2021/06/22/the-injustices-of-the-south-shaped-olmsteds-vision-of-landscape-architecture/. Accessed March 11, 2022.

"Frederick Law Olmsted and H.H. Richardson: The design dream team of the 19th century." Christian Science Monitor, 15 Feb. 2022, p. NA. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A693926320/OVIC?u=mca_main&sid=bookmark-OVIC&xid=33739639. Accessed 11 Mar. 2022.

Rich, Nathaniel. "Better Than Nature: what Frederick Law Olmsted can teach us about how to nurture a planet that has become a park." The Atlantic, vol. 318, no. 2, Sept. 2016, pp. 42+. Gale Academic OneFile, http://ezproxymca.flo.org/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsgao&AN=edsgcl.462787396&site=eds-live. Accessed 11 Mar. 2022.

The Emerald Tutu is a design project to protect Boston Harbor from climate change. MassArt Visiting Lecturer and architect, Gabriel Cira, is one member of the design team behind The Emerald Tutu. He worked with local environmental scientists and policy makers to come up with this project which is a nod to Frederick Law Olmsted's Emerald Necklace. The Emerald Tutu--so called because the meshy marsh mats evoke green tutus-- addresses a modern day environmental issue in a whimsical and inexpensive way. The project has one multiple prizes and a National Science Foundation grant.