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Collection Frederick Law Olmsted Papers

Related Resources

Selected Archival Collections

Selected Published Writings by Frederick Law Olmsted, Sr. (arranged chronologically)

  • Olmsted, Frederick Law, Sr. [under pen name W[ayfarer] Staten Island, New York. "The People's Park at Birkenhead." The Horticulturalist 6 (May 1851).
  • Olmsted, Frederick Law, Sr. Walks and Talks of an American Farmer in England. 2 vols. New York: G. P. Putnam, 1852. Electronic copy External available through HathiTrust.
  • Olmsted, Frederick Law, Sr. A Journey in the Seaboard Slave-States. New York: Dix and Edwards, 1856. Electronic copy External available through HathiTrust.
  • Olmsted, Frederick Law, Sr. Description of a Plan for the Improvement of the Central Park. New York, 1858. Electronic copy External available through HathiTrust.
  • Olmsted, Frederick Law, Sr. A Journey through Texas; or, a Saddle-Trip on the South-western Frontier. New York: Mason Brothers, 1859. Electronic copy External available through HathiTrust. See also http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.gdc/scd0001.00146471638
  • Olmsted, Frederick Law, Sr. A Journey in the Back Country. London: S. Low, 1860. Electronic copy External available through HathiTrust.
  • Olmsted, Frederick Law, Sr. The Cotton Kingdom. New York: Mason Brothers, 1861. Reprint edition, Da Capo Press, 1996.
  • Olmsted, Frederick Law, Sr. Report of a Preliminary Survey of the Camps of a Portion of Volunteer Forces near Washington. Washington, 1861. Electronic copy External available through HathiTrust.
  • Olmsted, Frederick Law, Sr. Hospital Transports. Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1863. Electronic copy External available through HathiTrust. See also http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.gdc/scd0001.00137444240
  • Olmsted, Frederick Law, Sr. Yosemite and the Mariposa Grove: A Preliminary Report, 1865. Reprint edition, Yosemite National Park/Yosemite Association, 1993. Electronic copy External available through HathiTrust.
  • Olmsted, Frederick Law, Sr. A Few Things to be Thought of Before Proceeding to Plan Buildings for the National Agricultural College. N.P., 1866.
  • Olmsted, Vaux, and Company. Report Upon a Projected Improvement of the Estate of the College of California, at Berkeley, Near Oakland. New York: W. C. Bryant, 1866. Electronic copy External available through HathiTrust. See also http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.gdc/scd0001.0029912423A
  • Olmsted, Frederick Law, Sr. Preliminary Report Respecting a Public Park in Buffalo.  Buffalo, N.Y.: Matthews and Warren, 1869.
  • Olmsted, Frederick Law, Sr. Public Parks and the Enlargement of Towns. Cambridge, Mass.: American Social Science Association/Riverside Press, 1870.
  • Olmsted, Frederick Law, Sr. Report on Mount Royal Park. New York, 1874. Electronic copy External available through HathiTrust.
  • Olmsted, Frederick Law, Sr., and Edward Clark. Annual Report U.S. Capitol. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1881-1888.
  • Olmsted, Frederick Law, Sr. "The Landscape Architecture of the World's Columbian Exposition." The Inland Architect and News Record 22 (September 1893).

Documentary Editions of Selected Olmsted Writings

  • Beveridge, Charles E., ed., Frederick Law Olmsted: Writings on Landscape, Culture and Society. New York: Library of America, 2015.
  • Beveridge, Charles E., and Carolyn F. Hoffman, eds. Writings on Public Parks, Parkways, and Park Systems. Supplementary Series Vol. 1 of The Papers of Frederick Law Olmsted. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997.
  • Beveridge, Charles E., Carolyn F. Hoffman, Kenneth Hawkins, and Tina Hummel, eds. Parks, Politics and Patronage, 1874-1882. Vol. 7 of The Papers of Frederick Law Olmsted. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007.
  • Beveridge, Charles E., and David Schuyler, eds. Creating Central Park, 1857-1861". Vol. 3 of The Papers of Frederick Law Olmsted. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1983.
  • Beveridge, Charles E., Lauren Meier, and Irene Mills, eds. Frederick Law Olmsted: Plans and Views of Public Parks. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2015. Papers of Frederick Law Olmsted Supplemental Series.
  • Beveridge, Charles E., Lauren Meier, and Irene Mills, eds. Frederick Law Olmsted: Plans and Views of Communities and Private Estates. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2021. Papers of Frederick Law Olmsted Supplemental Series.
  • Carr, Ethan, Amanda Gagel, and Michael Shapiro, eds. The Early Boston Years, 1882-1890. Vol. 8 of The Papers of Frederick Law Olmsted. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013.
  • Censor, Jane Turner, ed. Defending the Union: The Civil War and the U.S. Sanitary Commission, 1861-1863. Vol. 4 of The Papers of Frederick Law Olmsted. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986.
  • McLaughlin, Charles Capen, and Charles E. Beveridge, eds. The Formative Years, 1822 to 1852. Vol. 1 of The Papers of Frederick Law Olmsted. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1977.
  • McLaughlin, Charles Capen, Charles E. Beveridge, and David Schuyler, eds. Slavery and the South, 1852-1857. Vol. 2 of The Papers of Frederick Law Olmsted. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1981.
  • Olmsted, Frederick Law, Jr., and Theodora Kimball, eds. Frederick Law Olmsted, Landscape Architect, 1882-1903: Forty Years of Landscape Architecture. 2 vols. Vol. 1, Early Years and Experiences, Together with Biographical Notes. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1922. Vol. 2, Central Park as a Work of Art and as a Great Municipal Enterprise, 1853-1895. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1928. Reprint edition in one volume, New Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1973. Electronic copy External available through HathiTrust.
  • Ranney, Victoria Post, Gerard J. Rauluk, and Carolyn F. Hoffman, eds. The California Frontier, 1863-1865. Vol. 5 of The Papers of Frederick Law Olmsted. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990.
  • Schulyer, David, Gregory Kaliss, and Jeffrey Scholossberg, eds. The Last Great Projects, 1890-1895. Vol. 9 of The Papers of Frederick Law Olmsted. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2015.
  • Sutton, S. B. ed. Civilizing American Cities: Writings on City Landscapes by Frederick Law Olmsted. New York: Da Capo, 1997.
  • Twombly, Robert, ed. Frederick Law Olmsted: Essential Texts. New York: W. W. Norton, 2010.

Selected Biographies, Project Studies, and Other Related Works

  • Beveridge, Charles E., and Paul Rocheleau. Frederick Law Olmsted: Designing the American Landscape. New York: Universe, 1998.
  • Birnbaum, Charles, and Robin Karson, eds. Pioneers of American Landscape Design. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2000.
  • Diamant, Rolf and Ethan Carr. Olmsted and Yosemite: Civil War, Abolition, and the National Park Idea. Amherst, MA: Library of American Landscape History, 2022.
  • Drabelle, Dennis. The Power of Scenery: Frederick Law Olmsted and the Origin of the National Parks. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2021.
  • Eliot, Charles William. Charles Eliot, Landscape Architect. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1902. Reprint edition, with introduction by Keith N. Morgan. Amherst: University of Massachusetts, 1999.
  • Fein, Albert. Frederick Law Olmsted and the American Environmental Tradition. New York: G. Braziller, 1972.
  • Fein, Albert. Landscape into Cityscape: Frederick Law Olmsted's "Plan for a Greater New York City." Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1968.
  • Garodnick, Dan, Margaret Bracken, John Herrold, Charles McKinney, Alex Bershaw. Riverside Park: A New York City Treasure. New York: Riverside Park Conservancy, 2022.
  • Hockaday, Joan. Greenscapes: Olmsted's Pacific Northwest. Pullman: Washington State University Press, 2009.
  • Horwitz, Tony. Spying on the South: An Odyssey Across the American Divide. New York: Penguin, 2019.
  • Hugh, Howard. Architects of an American Landscape: Henry Hobson Richardson, Frederick Law Olmsted, and the Reimagining of America's Public and Private Spaces. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2022.
  • Johnston, Johanna. Frederick Law Olmsted: Partner with Nature. New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1975.
  • Klaus, Susan L. "Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr." In Pioneers of American Landscape Design, edited by Charles A. Birnbaum and Robin Karson. McGraw-Hill, New York, 2002.
  • Kowsky, Francis R. Country, Park, and City: The Architecture and Life of Calvert Vaux. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.
  • Larson, Erik. The Devil in the White City. New York: Vintage, 2004.
  • Lawliss, Lucy. Residential Work of the Olmsted Firm in Georgia, 1893-1937. Winston-Salem, N.C.: Southern Garden History Society, 1993.
  • Lawliss, Lucy, Caroline Loughlin, and Lauren Meier, eds. The Master List of Design Projects of the Olmsted Firm 1857-1979. Washington, D.C.: National Association for Olmsted Parks, 2008. Electronic copy External available through HathiTrust.
  • Levee, Arleyn. "John Charles Olmsted." In Pioneers of American Landscape Design, edited by Charles A. Birnbaum and Robin Karson. McGraw-Hill, New York, 2002.
  • Maloney, Cathy Jean. World's Fair Gardens: Shaping American Landscapes. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2012.
  • Martin, Justin. Genius of Place: The Life of Frederick Law Olmsted. Cambridge: De Capo Press, 2011.
  • Miller, Sara Cedar. Before Central Park. New York: Columbia University Press, 2022.
  • Miller, Sara Cedar. Central Park: An American Masterpiece. With a preface by Kenneth T. Jackson and an epilogue by Elizabeth Barlow Rogers. New York: Abrams/Central Park Conservancy, 2003.
  • National Association of Olmsted Parks. Workbook Series, 5 vols. Vol. 1, Charles Eliot 1857-1897, by Keith Morgan, 1991; Vol. 2, An Ecosystem Approach to Woodland Management: The Case of Prospect Park, by Edward Toth, 1991; Vol. 3, Landscape Composition Preservation Treatment: Defining an Ethic for Designed Landscapes, by Charles Birnbaum, 1992; Vol. 4, Frederick Law Olmsted's First and Last Suburbs: Riverside and Druid Hills, by Darlene R. Roth, 1993; Vol. 5, The Olmsteds at Biltmore, by Charles Beveridge and Susan Klaus, 1995.
  • Roper, Laura Wood. FLO—A Biography of Frederick Law Olmsted. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1973.
  • Rosenzweig, Roy, and Elizabeth Blackmar. The Park and the People: A History of Central Park. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1992.
  • Rybczynski, Witold. A Clearing in the Distance: Frederick Law Olmsted and America in the Nineteenth Century. New York: Scribner, 1999.
  • Taylor, Dorceta E. The Rise of the American Conservation Movement: Power, Privilege, and Environmental Protection. Durham: Duke University Press, 2016.
  • Zaitzevsky, Cynthia. Frederick Law Olmsted and the Boston Park System. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press/Harvard University Press, 1982.

Selected Online Resources

Compiled April 2018; updated April 2022