Frederick Law Olmsted: Landscape Architect 1822-1903: Early Years and Experiences Together with Biographical Notes.

OLMSTED, Frederick Law. Edited by Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. and Theodora Kimball.

$2,000.00

Item Number: 129553

New York and London: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1922.

First edition of the first volume of the autobiography of one of the foremost figures in American landscape architecture, Frederick Law Olmsted. Octavo, original cloth, illustrated, tissue-guarded frontispiece portrait of Olmsted. Edited by Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. and Theodora Kimball. Association copy, inscribed by Frederick Law Olmsted on the front free endpaper, “C. Bowyer Vaux from [printed calling card: Mr. Frederick Law Olmsted. Brookline, Mass.] Philadelphia. December 13th 1922.” The recipient, Calvert Bowyer Vaux was the son of English-American architect and landscape designer Calvert Vaux, who brought in the elder Olmsted (who had never before designed a landscape) to plan what was to be their most famed and celebrated effort, New York’s Central Park. Vaux, on his own and in various partnerships, designed and created dozens of parks across the northeastern United States, most famously in New York City, Brooklyn, and Buffalo. He introduced new ideas about the significance of public parks in America during a hectic time of urbanization. This industrialization of the cityscape inspired Vaux to focus on an integration of buildings, bridges, and other forms of architecture into their natural surroundings. In 1865, Vaux and Olmsted founded Olmsted, Vaux and Co., which went on to design Prospect Park and Fort Greene Park in Brooklyn, and Morningside Park in Manhattan. In Chicago, they planned one of the first suburbs, called the Riverside Improvement Company in 1868. The preface notes this volume’s commemoration of the centenary of Olmsted’s birth, describing his historic partnership with Vaux. Near fine in the scarce original dust jacket which is in very good condition. An exceptional association copy of this rare volume.

Frederick Law Olmsted, Senior, was one of America's foremost artists and a founder of the profession of landscape architecture in the U.S. This, the first volume of his papers, was published on the centennial of his birth and contains a delightful collection of autobiographical passages relating to his boyhood and travels in rural England and the Southern States. From this account we get an unusually vivid picture of New England village life in the first half of the nineteenth century. Included in the volume is a short paper on American Landscape Gardening in 1857.