Parks for the People

October marks American Archives Month, a time to celebrate archival collections across the country that document innumerable chapters in the United States’ history. The work of landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted is captured in countless archival collections thanks to his firm having a hand in creating over 6,000 landscapes and gardens over the course of a century. In addition to renowned landscape designs, Olmsted is famous for his insightful and enduring design principles. Many research repositories are gearing up to commemorate the bicentennial of his birth in 2022 by sharing collection materials related to Olmsted online. 

The Archives of American Gardens (AAG) includes over six hundred photographs of public parks and gardens that Frederick Law Olmsted and his firm designed. AAG has digitized and described many of these photographs in the Smithsonian’s Collections Search Center so that researchers can discover and enjoy the parks and gardens on their own. For instance, AAG houses historic glass plate negatives of Olmsted’s iconic Central Park in New York City. Forty years after a section of the park opened in 1858, landscape architect (and Olmsted firm alumnus) Thomas Warren Sears captured the pastoral haven amidst urban skyscrapers with his camera.

Central Park, New York, New York (NY147006), circa 1890-1910. From the Thomas Warren Sears Photograph Collection. 

In addition photographing the pastoral scenery at Central Park, Sears collected images of people enjoying Central Park. 

“The Mall, looking north,” (NY147022), 1894. J.S. Johnston, photographer. From the Thomas Warren Sears Photograph Collection. 

AAG’s Historic Garden Stereograph Collection includes commercial stereographs of families making use of rustic architecture in Central Park. Calvert Vaux, Olmsted’s co-designer for Central Park, had the inspiration to incorporate unmilled wood fences, pergolas, and summerhouses into the park’s design.

“[Rustic Rest.]” (STR015026), circa 1900-1910 from Historic Gardens Stereograph Collection. 

Detail from “[Rustic Rest.]” (STR015026), circa 1900-1910 from Historic Gardens Stereograph Collection. 

The largest of Central Park’s original rustic architectural structures was the Kinderberg, a 110-foot summerhouse that Vaux designed for the park in 1866. Park officials dismantled the Kinderberg in the 1940s when it fell into disrepair, so photographs like these are invaluable for capturing the landscape’s early appearance.

Detail from “View in Central Park, N.Y.” (STR015027), circa 1900-1910 from Historic Gardens Stereograph Collection

AAG even records evidence of a romantic turn-of-the-century date!  

Detail from “Lovers' Lane, Central Park, New York, U.S.A.” (STR015021), circa 1900-1910 from Historic Gardens Stereograph Collection. 

 

Central Park is only one example of an Olmsted park featured in AAG’s collections; these images and many others assist researchers as they investigate how Olmsted-planned parks evolved after the firm finished its work. AAG’s efforts to document the past also help the public discover clues about how Olmsted landscapes impacted people’s lives. Thanks to research institutions across the country sharing images from their collections online, the public can better assess how well Frederick Law Olmsted achieved his goal of transmitting the benefits of greenspaces to a diverse array of people. “It is one great purpose of the Park,” Olmsted noted, “to supply to the hundreds of thousands of tired workers, who have no opportunity to spend their summers in the country, a specimen of God’s handiwork.” Archives can help the public envision parks in the past and consider how people’s experiences in them differ—and remain the same—today.  

 

Alanna Natanson

Archives of American Gardens Intern 

Smithsonian Gardens

Bibliography  

“About the Olmsted Legacy.” Olmsted.org. National Association of Olmsted Parks. Accessed July 2, 2020. https://www.olmsted.org/the-olmsted-legacy/about-the-olmsted-legacy. 

“Olmsted–Designed New York City Parks.” NYCgovparks.org. New York City Department of Parks & Recreation. Accessed July 2, 2020. nycgovparks.org/about/history/olmsted-parks.    

Olmsted, Frederick Law. “Selected Writings on Central Park (1858, 1870).” In Empire City: New York Through the Centuries, edited by Kenneth T. Jackson and David S. Dunbar, 278-291. New York: Columbia University Press, 2005. GoogleBooks.  

Sain-Baird, Jessica. “The Story Behind Central Park’s Rustic Architecture.” CentralParkNYC.org. Central Park Conservancy. June 15, 2017. https://www.centralparknyc.org/blog/central-park-rustic-architecture 

 

All images are from Smithsonian Institution, Archives of American Gardens.