The library will be closed Sunday, March 31st, for Easter

Memorial Hall Library

Frederick Law Olmsted at 200

Tuesday, April 26 marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Frederick Law Olmsted. The father of American landscape architecture is best known for designing New York City's Central Park and Boston's Emerald Necklace, but Olmsted's legacy includes hundreds of famous landscape commissions around the country as well as significant contributions to American conservation, public health and public history. Biographers and historians describe Olmsted as restless young man who tried his hand at far-East exploration, farming, and journalism before finding his true calling in middle age. Although he took his work quite seriously and believed his projects had significant health outcomes, Olmsted considered himself an artist rather than an engineer or a scientist. Olmsted believed that "great public lands" accessible to people from all backgrounds could serve as a resource for improving wellness and civil society. His designs were a remarkable departure from the early-American ideal of land as a burden to be tamed and land as a commodity to be worked. Olmsted was radical and forward-thinking, not nostalgic. He believed in the potential of American cities to benefit from incorporating aesthetic spaces for recreation and repose. Wandering paths, accessible meadows, rocky terrains and aesthetic plantings were developed with a sincere allegiance to the original, local topography and values. If you have ever had time to wander down a serpentine path in the Arnold Arboretum, row on Jamaica Pond while admiring the landscape or spend time in any one of hundreds of his landscapes, you can just begin to understand the complexity and serendipity of Frederick Law Olmstead's vision. We hope you'll borrow one of the selected books or films listed below and help celebrate an original American thinker. 

Did you know? Not only was Frederick Law Olmsted a member of the Phillips Academy Class of 1838, he later came back to Andover to design parts of the campus. Olmsted & Associates, the successor firm started by Olmsted's sons on his retirement, completed many projects for PA as well as commissions for the Town of Andover and private residences in Andover and North Andover. 

A green place to be : the creation of Central Park
A green place to be : the creation of Central Park
by Ashley Benham Yazdani

Complemented by biographies of visionaries Calvert Vaux and Frederick Law Olmstead, a debut picture book offers engaging facts and sumptuous artwork to depict the history, design and legacy of New York City's Central Park.
Frederick Law Olmsted and the Boston Park System
Frederick Law Olmsted and the Boston Park System
by Cynthia Zaitzevsky
This book tells the story of a park system that was once perhaps the finest in the nation. The book is full of scholarly history, yet readable and fresh, filled with illuminating maps and plans and with lovely period photographs of the magical places Olmsted created out of what had previously been, so often, dreary wasteland.
Genius of place : the life of Frederick Law Olmsted
Genius of place : the life of Frederick Law Olmsted
by Justin Martin

Describes the life of the landscape architect responsible for New York's Central Park and Boston's Emerald Necklace, including his work as an influential journalist, an advocate for the environment, and an abolitiontist, all overshadowed by a tragic personal life
Architects of an American landscape : Henry Hobson Richardson, Frederick Law Olmsted, and the reimagining of America's public and private spaces
Architects of an American landscape : Henry Hobson Richardson, Frederick Law Olmsted, and the reimagining of America's public and private spaces
by 1952- Howard, Hugh

"A dual portrait of America's first great architect, Henry Hobson Richardson, and her finest landscape designer, Frederick Law Olmsted--and their immense impact on America"
Spying on the South : an odyssey across the American divide
Spying on the South : an odyssey across the American divide
by 1958-2019 Horwitz, Tony

The Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Horwitz retraces Frederick Law Olmstead's epic journey across the pre-Civil War American South in search of common ground in today's dangerously divided nation
A clearing in the distance : Frederick Law Olmsted and America in the nineteenth century
A clearing in the distance : Frederick Law Olmsted and America in the nineteenth century
by Witold Rybczynski

A chronicle of the fascinating life and career of landscape architect Frederick Law Olmstead, best known as the creator of New York's Central Park, shows the immense effect his ideas and actions had on American culture and history. 60,000 first printing. Tour.
Olmstead and America's urban parks [videorecording] / directed by Rebecca Messner
Olmstead and America's urban parks [videorecording] / directed by Rebecca Messner

Examines Frederick Law Olmsted's impact on the development of America's first city parks
Frederick Law Olmsted : designing the American landscape
Frederick Law Olmsted : designing the American landscape
by Charles E. Beveridge

Traces the life of the influential landscape architect, and looks at his designs for public parks
Frederick Law Olmsted: designing America / produced by Lawrence R. Hott, Diane K. Garey; directed by Lawrence R. Hott
This documentary is viewable through MHL's Kanopy Streaming Video subscription  https://www.kanopy.com/en/mhl/ 
This film may also be requested from a Merrimack Valley Library Consortium partner. 
 
 
Olmsted's America : an "unpractical" man and his vision of civilization
Olmsted's America : an "unpractical" man and his vision of civilization
by Lee Hall

Presents not just a biography per se but an examination of how Olmsted's particular ideas affected the United States during his time and the important significance these concepts hold for today's world, especially as they relate to nature and the environment.
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