Exploring Olmsted

By Kathleen Morrison

It often seems, when you delve into a topic you did not know much about previously, that the subject of your interest is suddenly everywhere. That is the case this month with notable landscape artist Frederick Law Olmsted.

In this month’s issue, we explored the Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site in Brookline, MA, and the renovations it is currently undergoing to provide a historically accurate backdrop to the exhibits displayed there.

Fairsted and View of Historic Olmsted Elm    Photo: Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site

Perhaps it is the fading days of summer, when everyone is keen to make the most of public parks before temperatures drop, but we really aren’t the only ones who seem to have Olmsted on the brain.

One blogger, from evolvingcritic.com, fulfilled a bucket list goal of hiking the Emerald Necklace in one day, and his photos from the trip give a sense of the scale and diversity of landscape in the Olmsted-designed chain of parks.

That diversity is indicative of Olmsted’s body of work as a whole, as no two Olmstedian landscapes are exactly alike. Olmsted was an artist who let the purpose and the existing environment direct his work. There are however, recurring themes in his work. “He preferred to use indigenous materials,” explains Alan Banks, a supervisory park ranger at the historic site. “Part of it was, he felt the less it seemed dressed up by human hands, the better. Also, the idea of unity was important. That’s why, generally in an Olmsted landscape you don’t see statues or flower beds, because it would draw your eye too close to that particular object. Composition was important to his landscapes, he wanted you to hear the melody rather than get caught up in the individual notes.”

Frederick Law Olmsted        Photo: Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site

Olmsted – and later his sons Frederick Jr. and John Charles – designed landscapes large and small for clients all over the country, from Duke University in North Carolina to the Kennedys’ estate in Hyannis. For Olmsted news on a national level, The New York Times includes Olmsted in their “Times Topics” archive, accumulating years of articles on the artist in one place.

Kathleen Morrison is a freelance journalist and graduate student at Boston University working toward her Masters degree.