I30 Frederick Law Olmsted 



shown or are likely to possess any respectable power of deal- 

 ing with problems of the class that properly come before the 

 Park Commissioners of a large and growing city. 



Of those among them likely to be available to you the man 

 of highest proved ability is my old partner Calvert Vaux of 

 New York. There are respects of design in which he is 

 probably the superior of any living man. . . . There are 

 in the country to my knowledge but two other (properly 

 speaking) landscape designers who have had any experience 

 that would specially qualify them to advise you. 



One of them is H. W. S. Cleveland. He is a cultivated 

 Boston born and bred man, has been employed in responsible 

 positions on the pubHc parks of Brooklyn, Chicago and 

 Minneapolis. He is the oldest landscape gardener in the 

 country. . . . 



The other is J. Weidenmann, the author of a book pub- 

 Hshed by the Appletons ' on landscape gardening ; a Swiss by 

 birth. He laid out and superintended for years, the public 

 park at Hartford, Conn. . . . 



No doubt there are other promising men whom I don't 

 know or think of, for the profession is not organized and every 

 man fights on his own hook. 



There are three or four men who tell fine stories of them- 

 selves as landscape gardeners, even in some cases showing 

 what appear to be reputable testimonials, whom I should like 

 to caution you against but I do not feel quite justified in 

 mentioning them by names. One, an Englishman, I have 

 good reason to believe a knave. Another, a clever young 

 fiddler, comes from the north of Europe originally, later from 

 Paris. Another has published a pamphlet on Landscape 

 Gardening in which he aims to appear a man of Science and 

 shows himself a hopeless ignoramus. 



' Mr. Olmsted must have meant Beautifying Country Homes, published by 

 the Orange Judd Company. 



