Category: Research & Writings

The 1903 Olmsted Brothers plan for Portland, OR, was stuffed in a drawer and forgotten until Barbara Walker found it more than sixty years later. Now, the 40 Mile Loop stretches across 140 miles.

A conversation with the author of Forest Park: Exploring Portland’s Natural Sanctuary

Andrew Jackson Downing, a young nurseryman from Newburgh, NY, was America’s leading landscape gardening artist and introduced the nation to the Beautiful and Picturesque.

In a new webinar, Cal Poly professor Christine Edstom O’Hara discusses Olmsted Brothers’ design for Palos Verdes.

The gift that keeps on giving: how the Wheatena Corporation's gift of four acres of parkland to Rahway, New Jersey, in 1922 was the seed that grew into the Rahway River Parkway and, ultimately, the Union County Park System.

Olmsted Network President & CEO Dede Petri recounts the trip of a lifetime, retracing Frederick Law Olmsted's footsteps in England with John Phibbs, Gilly Kitching and 12 intrepid Olmsted pilgrims. Olmsted’s first book and delightful travelogue, Walks and Talks of an American Farmer in England, provides the backdrop for these observations.

The Olmsted Network and the University of Virginia Press are pleased to announce that The Papers of Frederick Law Olmsted are now open access and available online through ROTUNDA: Digital Imprint of the University of Virginia Press.

Rolf Diamant— the co-author of "Olmsted and Yosemite: Civil War, Abolition, and the National Park Idea"— explores the Olmsted family's ties to the National Park Service.

In this republished article, Charles Beveridge focuses on efforts by the editors of the Olmsted Papers to assist in the revival and preservation of Olmsted's legacy.

In this program, Jennifer Ott examines the enduring work of John Charles Olmsted in Seattle, WA.

Arnold Arboretum celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2022. They celebrated this milestone with a wide array of public activities and events.

In a brand new study, spurred by Olmsted 200, University of Pennsylvania's Fritz Steiner explores the Olmsteds' connections to campus design.   

The Library of Congress needs help with a special transcription project.

Who was Jacob Wrey Mould and what did he do with Frederick Law Olmsted? That will be the topic of a new book, out in 2023 by scholar Frank Kowsky with Lucille Gordon, revealing new information about this important figure in 19th century American architecture and music. Mould, a British architect, came to New York in 1852 and worked with Calvert Vaux and Olmsted on Central Park, creating the beautiful designs that ornament Bethesda Terrace and other structures in Central Park.   

Library of American Landscape History is celebrating Olmsted 200 by releasing two Olmsted books— Olmsted and Yosemite: Civil War, Abolition, and the National Park Idea by Rolf Diamant and Ethan Carr and Walks and Talks of An American Farmer in England with an introduction by Charles C. McLaughlin.