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Collection Manuscript/Mixed Material Frederick Law Olmsted Papers

About this Item

Title

  • Frederick Law Olmsted Papers

Summary

  • Correspondence, letterbooks, journals, drafts of articles and books, speeches and lectures, biographical and genealogical data, business papers, legal and financial papers, scrapbooks, printed material, maps, drawings, and other papers encompassing Olmsted's career and private life.
  • The papers focus on Olmsted's career as a landscape architect, specifically as a designer of parks and the grounds of private estates and public buildings and as a city and regional planner. Includes material pertaining to his designs chiefly of Central Park in New York, N.Y., of the area surrounding Niagara Falls, N.Y., of the U.S. Capitol grounds, Washington, D.C., and of the grounds of the World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, Ill., 1893. Material pertains, in part, to work undertaken by Olmsted and the firms of Olmsted and Vaux (1858), Frederick Law Olmsted (1858-1884), F.L. and J.C. Olmsted (1884-1889), F.L. Olmsted and Company (1889-1893), Olmsted, Olmsted, and Eliot (1893-1897), F.L. and J.C. Olmsted (1897-1898), and Olmsted Brothers (1898-1961). Also documents Olmsted's writings, his investigation of slavery in the South (1850s), his role as general secretary of the U.S. Sanitary Commission during the Civil War, and his work as superintendent of John C. Frémont's gold mining estates in Mariposa, Calif.
  • Olmsted family papers include a journal and other papers of Gideon Olmsted documenting his adventures as a privateer during the Revolutionary war; journals kept by Frederick Law Olmsted's father, John, recording activities of the Olmsted family as well as local and national events; and correspondence of John Olmsted (father), John Hull Olmsted (brother), Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. (son), and John Charles Olmsted (nephew).
  • Correspondents include Henry W. Bellows, Samuel Bowles, Charles Loring Brace, Daniel Hudson Burnham, H.W.S. Cleveland, George William Curtis, Charles A. Dana, Edwin Lawrence Godkin, A.H. Green, Edward Everett Hale, William James, Clarence King, Frederick John Kingsbury, Frederick Newman Knapp, Charles Follen McKim, Charles Eliot Norton, Whitelaw Reid, H.H. Richardson, Charles N. Riotte, Carl Schurz, George Templeton Strong, George Washington Vanderbilt, Calvert Vaux, Henry Villard, George E. Waring, Jr., and Katherine Prescott Wormeley.

Names

  • Olmsted, Frederick Law, 1822-1903
  • Olmsted, Gideon, 1749-1845
  • Olmsted, John, 1791-1873

Headings

  • -  Bellows, Henry W.--(Henry Whitney),--1814-1882--Correspondence
  • -  Bowles, Samuel,--1826-1878--Correspondence
  • -  Brace, Charles Loring,--1826-1890--Correspondence
  • -  Burnham, Daniel Hudson,--1846-1912--Correspondence
  • -  Cleveland, H. W. S.--(Horace William Shaler),--1814-1900--Correspondence
  • -  Curtis, George William,--1824-1892--Correspondence
  • -  Dana, Charles A.--(Charles Anderson),--1819-1897--Correspondence
  • -  Frémont, John Charles,--1813-1890
  • -  Godkin, Edwin Lawrence,--1831-1902--Correspondence
  • -  Green, A. H.--(Andrew Haswell)--1820-1903--Correspondence
  • -  Hale, Edward Everett,--1822-1909--Correspondence
  • -  James, William,--1842-1910--Correspondence
  • -  King, Clarence,--1842-1901--Correspondence
  • -  Kingsbury, Frederick John,--1823-1910--Correspondence
  • -  Knapp, Frederick Newman,--1821-1889--Correspondence
  • -  McKim, Charles Follen,--1847-1909--Correspondence
  • -  Norton, Charles Eliot,--1827-1908--Correspondence
  • -  Olmsted family
  • -  Olmsted, Frederick Law,--1870-1957--Correspondence
  • -  Olmsted, John Charles,--1852-1920--Correspondence
  • -  Olmsted, John Hull,--1825-1857--Correspondence
  • -  Reid, Whitelaw,--1837-1912--Correspondence
  • -  Richardson, H. H.--(Henry Hobson),--1838-1886--Correspondence
  • -  Riotte, Carl Nicolaus,--1814-1887--Correspondence
  • -  Schurz, Carl,--1829-1906--Correspondence
  • -  Strong, George Templeton,--1820-1875--Correspondence
  • -  Vanderbilt, George Washington,--1862-1914--Correspondence
  • -  Vaux, Calvert,--1824-1895--Correspondence
  • -  Villard, Henry,--1835-1900--Correspondence
  • -  Waring, George E.--(George Edwin),--1833-1898--Correspondence
  • -  Wormeley, Katherine Prescott--Correspondence
  • -  Olmsted and Vaux (Firm)
  • -  Frederick Law Olmsted (Firm)
  • -  F.L. and J.C. Olmsted (Firm : 1884-1889)
  • -  F.L. Olmsted and Company
  • -  Olmsted, Olmsted, and Eliot
  • -  F.L. and J.C. Olmsted (Firm : 1897-1898)
  • -  Olmsted Brothers
  • -  United States Capitol (Washington, D.C.)
  • -  United States Sanitary Commission
  • -  World's Columbian Exposition--(1893 :--Chicago, Ill.)
  • -  City planning
  • -  Exhibitions--Illinois--Chicago
  • -  Landscape architecture
  • -  Landscape architecture--New York (State)--New York
  • -  Landscape architecture--Niagara Falls (N.Y. and Ont.)
  • -  Landscape architecture--Washington (D.C.)
  • -  Gold mines and mining--California--Mariposa
  • -  Parks--Design and construction
  • -  Privateering--History--18th century
  • -  Regional planning
  • -  Slavery--Southern States
  • -  California--Gold discoveries
  • -  Central Park (New York, N.Y.)--History
  • -  Mariposa (Calif.)--History
  • -  Niagara Falls (N.Y. and Ont.)--History
  • -  United States--History--Revolution, 1775-1783--Naval operations
  • -  United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Health aspects

Notes

  • -  Arranged in eight series. Series 1: Journals, 1777-1888; Series 2: Correspondence, 1838-1928; Series 3: Subject File, 1857-1952; Series 4: Speeches and Writings File, 1839-1903; Series 5: Miscellany, 1837-1952; Series 6: 1975 Addition, 1821-1924; Series 7: 1996 Addition, 1880-1881; and Series 8: Oversize, 1886.
  • -  Microfilm edition of material received through 1975 available, nos. 16,498 & 16,922.
  • -  Microfilm produced from originals in the Manuscript Division. Washington, D.C. : Library of Congress Photoduplication Service, 1975 (no. 16,498) and 1977 (no. 16,922).
  • -  Gift, Olmsted family, 1947-1948, 1968-1969.
  • -  Gift, Laura Wood Roper, 1975.
  • -  Purchase, 1981.
  • -  Landscape architect.
  • -  Collection material in English.
  • -  Finding aid available in the Library of Congress Manuscript Reading Room and at http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/eadmss.ms001019

Medium

  • 24,000 items.
  • 73 containers plus 1 oversize.
  • 60 microfilm reels.
  • 23 linear feet.

Repository

Library of Congress Control Number

  • mm77035121

Access Advisory

  • Open to research.
  • Restrictions may apply to unprocessed material.

Additional Metadata Formats

Finding Aid

Rights & Access

The Library of Congress's digital scans of the papers of Frederick Law Olmsted are in the public domain.

Credit Line: Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Frederick Law Olmsted Papers.

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Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Olmsted, Frederick Law, Gideon Olmsted, and John Olmsted. Frederick Law Olmsted Papers. Manuscript/Mixed Material. https://www.loc.gov/collections/frederick-law-olmsted-papers/about-this-collection/.

APA citation style:

Olmsted, F. L., Olmsted, G. & Olmsted, J. Frederick Law Olmsted Papers. [Manuscript/Mixed Material] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/collections/frederick-law-olmsted-papers/about-this-collection/.

MLA citation style:

Olmsted, Frederick Law, Gideon Olmsted, and John Olmsted. Frederick Law Olmsted Papers. Manuscript/Mixed Material. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/collections/frederick-law-olmsted-papers/about-this-collection/>.