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 Civil
War era biographies too often are written as if their Civil
War subjects exist only because of the Civil War. So much so,
that it is hard to imagine that individuals such as U. S. Grant,
J. L. Chamberlain, or Elisha Hunt Rhodes would have existed
if there had been no Civil War.
This Civil War biography is unlike others, because the war
did not define who Frederick Law Olmsted was or how he lived
the remainder of his life. Olmsted's life was significant apart
from it, as well as before and after it.
Olmsted was born to a relatively wealthy merchant family in
New England. As a result, he was well educated but rather aimless
about his future. Through the author we come to understand
how this man with so many diverse interests--travel, writing,
farming, science, the outdoors, and art--combined them all
to become both a social historian and one of the first landscape
architects in this country.
Olmsted's journalism career began with the New York Times.
In the 1850s he traveled throughout the South providing a series
of articles which eventually became the classic study, The
Cotton Kingdom. Olmsted's work gave Northern readers the
first dispassionate study of the antebellum South. He does
not condemn slavery outright, but logically concludes, what
is obvious today but was not obvious in the 19th century, that
the economy of the South was impractical and that slavery degrades
and demoralizes all who participate in it. In this work we
see the first glimpse of Olmsted's true interest, how modern
society ("civilization," as the term was used then) should
live in a democracy.
During the war Olmsted served as head of the United States
Sanitary Commission, which provided medical supplies, care,
and comfort to the soldiers at the front. He was an expert
organizer, and initiated innovative systems to track and account
for materials and the soldiers that the Commission served.
These skills were essential in his later career.
 After
the war, with his resourcefulness and his understanding of
organization and basic human nature, Olmsted began his career
as a landscape architect in earnest. After promoting the concept
of Central Park in New York, he planned, oversaw, and maintained
the Park for many years. He was soon called upon to create
Prospect Park in Brooklyn, Back Bay in Boston, the Capitol
Grounds in Washington D.C., the World's Columbian Exposition
in Chicago, as well as the design of private projects including
Stanford University and the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North
Carolina. Olmsted also championed what became the National
Park Service.
In the early 1860s, he visited Yosemite and sought to have
it established as a national park to be preserved for the use
and enjoyment of all Americans. He was also instrumental in
protecting Niagara Falls by creating a scenic reservation around
the site.
The nature of landscaping does not allow for a project ever
to be "complete." Olmsted had the vision to plan the evolution
of his projects to be borne out in future decades. However,
there is a more tangible project that Olmsted did not complete.
It was to be "a heavy-sort of book on society in the United
States," a book about "the influence of pioneer-life and of
democracy." It was to be a book about American society. He
hoped to discuss how the Western frontier, immigration, and
the creation of large cities and suburbs, would not result
in mediocrity, but instead would create an individualism resulting
in universal prosperity. He believed that such prosperity was
the result of living in a democracy. This democracy, initiated
by the American Revolution and reaffirmed by the American Civil
War, is manifested in the public parks and open landscapes
he created. Frederick Law Olmsted's legacy is all around us,
and like a democratic society, it continues to evolve and it
will never be complete.
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