X Preface 



produce a monograph on Central Park which shall not only 

 present the Park from the standpoint of design, but shall also 

 give a connected history of its conception, design, construc- 

 tion, and management up to the time of its fullest develop- 

 ment before its principal designers lost touch with it in the 

 8o's. The volume will therefore offer not merely, or even 

 primarily, Mr. Olmsted's personal contribution as a designer, 

 but rather the conception of the park as he always regarded 

 it, — as a great collaborative effort in and for a democratic 

 community. 



The editorial work on the great mass of Mr. Olmsted's 

 papers personal and professional was begun soon after his 

 death by F. L. Olmsted, Junior. At this time, 1903-04, the 

 bulk of the papers was gone over and separated into the more 

 and less important, and a beginning made on their arrange- 

 ment, with the assistance of Mr. Philip P. Sharpies. In the 

 spring of 1920, Mr. F. L. Olmsted engaged the present 

 editor's services to bring the material into definitive form for 

 publication, while Mrs. Frederick Law Olmsted, Senior, was 

 still alive to lend the aid of her memory to the work. During 

 the summer and fall of 1920 Mrs. Olmsted, at ninety years of 

 age, made it her major occupation, saw the scheme of the 

 whole series of volumes take shape, and approved the selec- 

 tion of material for the first volume, in which she herself had 

 perhaps the greatest personal interest. It was hoped that the 

 first volume might appear on the hundredth anniversary of 

 Mr. Olmsted's birth, April 26, 1922, and that she might live 

 to see it published. She died on April 23, 1921, but not be- 

 fore she had helped the work immeasurably not only by her 

 discriminating advice but by the inspiration of her interest. 



The whole work has been subject to the direction, criti- 

 cism, and approval of the present Mr. Frederick Law Olmsted, 

 who has made the editorial work and publication possible, 

 and has added some of the brief explanatory notes. 



T. K. 



Brookline, July 28, 1922. 



