PREFACE 



The richness and variety of the professional papers left by- 

 Frederick Law Olmsted, Senior, is astonishing, especially in 

 view of the enormous amount of work on the ground which he 

 accomplished in the almost forty years of his active career as 

 a Landscape Architect. Orderly and thorough by habit of 

 thought, he wrote down with minute care the various steps of 

 his professional dealings, in many cases retaining unused 

 drafts which show valuable processes of mind. From the 

 beginning he realized fully the importance of presenting the 

 new profession to the public in a favorable light, and was 

 constantly "coming before the pubHc," — as the phrase went, 

 — in the daily press and in occasional pamphlets. Several of 

 his professional reports also were printed at his own expense, 

 but a far greater number have lain buried in the files of Park 

 Department Documents or have never been printed in any 

 form. His personal life after 1857 was so closely bound up 

 with his professional activities that his family and friendly 

 letters reveal many sideHghts on his work. The record of his 

 professional correspondence is fortunately full. When the 

 political harassments to which he was subjected prevented 

 him from sleeping, he used to while away the hours of the 

 night by writing, sometimes in regard to his current problems 

 and sometimes bits of general wisdom gained in his profes- 

 sional experience. About 1890 when he was obliged in some 

 degree to lessen his travelling about, he wrote several long 

 retrospective letters, reviewing his career, and he left also 

 two or three short fragments of autobiography, which are 

 included in this present volume. 



Among the many people outside the Olmsted family who 

 had preserved and were able to return letters for editorial 

 purposes, there should be especially mentioned: the late 

 Frederick J. Kingsbury of Waterbury, Conn., who added to 

 the letters a valuable group of reminiscences; Miss Emma 

 Brace (letters to her father Charles Loring Brace) who as- 

 sisted also in the preliminary sorting of Olmsted letters; Miss 



