PARK AND CEMETERY 
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THE LATE FREDERICK LAW OLMSTED. 
FREDERICK LAW OLMSTED, 
At the age of 82, Mr. Frederick Law Olmsted died 
Aug. 28th. Owing to ill health he retired from the 
practice of his profession in 1895. Born in Hartford, 
Conn., April 26, 1822, he studied at Yale in 1843 and 
later received the degrees of A. M. from Amherst Col- 
lege and LL. D. from Harvard and Yale. 
With his partner he designed the park systems of 
most of the cities in the United States where any de- 
sign at all was attempted. Among the more notable are 
Central Park, New York; Prospect Park, Brooklyn; 
Franklin Park, Boston; Belle Isle Park, Detroit; Cher- 
okee Park, Louisville, and Jackson Park, Chicago. 
The World’s Columbian Exposition grounds in Chi- 
cago was one of his best and most important works. 
Universities and colleges, schools, municipal build- 
ings, zoological and botanical gardens, railway stations, 
suburban land subdivisions and private estates were de- 
signed by him in great number and throughout the 
country and Canada. 
Though prepared in 1836, owing to bad eyesight he 
waived his intention of entering college. One year he 
remained in the country, and during another undertook 
an ocean voyage for the benefit of his health. He was 
for three years a student of civil engineering and later 
pursued scientific studies at Yale. During two years he 
was a working student of agriculture, and for seven 
years, or until 1855, a farmer and horticulturist upon 
his own land. 
At this time he was already an ardent lover of nat- 
ural scenery, and for the enjoyment of it made many 
journeys, chiefly in the saddle and on foot. From 1850 
to 1857 he devoted himself much to literary work. 
In 1850 he traveled in Europe, mainly on foot, giving 
special attention to rural affairs, particularly to parks 
and pleasure grounds, and the manner in which they 
were managed and used. In 1856 and three times sub- 
sequently he visited Europe, giving special study to 
parks and pleasure grounds, public forests, gardens 
and the plans and manner of enlargement of towns and 
suburbs. 
In the fall of 1857 he was appointed superintendent 
of the preparatory work of the projected Central Park 
of New York. The following winter in association 
with Calvert Vaux, he devised a plan for this park, 
which was selected as the most satisfactory of thirty- 
three plans submitted in competition. After the adop- 
tion of the plan the designers were employed to carry 
it out, and, in order to weather political difficulties, 
were required to proceed as rapidly as practicable. At 
one time they employed nearly 4,000 men, securing, un- 
der great local difficulties, a degree of discipline, effi- 
ciency and economy hardly' known on any other munici- 
pal work in the country. 
Mr. Olmsted was the author of the following works : 
“Walks and Talks of an American Farmer in Eng- 
land,” 1st edition, 1852; “A Journey in the Seaboard 
Slave States,” 1856; “A Journey in Texas,” 1857; “A 
Journey in the Back County,” 1861. In addition to the 
above, Mr. Olmsted wrote much on special problems 
of his profession, which is to be found in various pe- 
riodicals and unprinted reports of park commissioners 
and other bodies. 
SUBURBAN LOTS AND THEIR LESSONS. 
By H. A. Caparn. 
Several lessons may be learned from these two little 
pictures of a suburban house and lot. The first, 
taught more clearly in No. 1 by the bank of honey- 
suckle, is the excellence of breadth, which means 
plenty of one thing in one place. On the opposite side 
of the street is one of those sloping sod banks, uncer- 
tain in form, commonplace in appearance, and hated 
by the hired man, who has to mow- it, which makes a 
good foil to the richness and variety of the foliage 
illustrated, which is nothing but Hall’s honeysuckle. 
When it was first planted, four or five years ago, there 
was a good deal of Rosa Wichuraiana set out with it, 
but the honeysuckle appears to have crowded it out 
and taken entire possession. The bank vYas cut through 
intractable clay and gravel and, if it had been sodded, 
would have cost a great deal for topsoil and additional 
preparation, to say nothing of future care. 
The second lesson is the evil of indiscriminate cut- 
ting or plashing or slashing of all kinds of bushes into 
the same ugly shapes. The shrubs in the pictures 
(more clearly shown in No. 2) were intended to mass 
