New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1903-08-29

BOSTON, Aug 2o--Ereoerick Law OlnSteo' the
famous landscape architect died to-day at Wa
verify, Mass, aged eighty-one years. Death was
due to weakness resulting from i'll health and
advanced age. A widow. two sons and a daugh-
ter are left
Frederick Law olmsted was born in Hartford,
Conn, April 26. 1872. He for three years
a student of civil engineering and later pursued
scientific studies Yale College. He was then
for two years a working student OF agriculture
and afterward seven years a farmer and horticult-
urist upon his own land at Guilford, Conn., ana on
Staten Island. In 1850 he travelled 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 1853 and 1854 he was engaged IN d
study of the economical condition of the slave
States. For closer observations of rural details
he travelled distance of more than four thousand
miles in these States horseback. In 1885, he
visited Europe again, he did three times after
ward, in each case giving special study to parks
and pleasure grounds, public forests. geological
and botanical gardens, and the plans and manner
of enlargement of towns and suburbs.
In the spring of 1857 he appointed supertn-
tendent OF the preparatory work Of the projected
Central Park. of this city. The following fall, in
association with Calvert Vaux he devised plan
for this park which was selected the most salts
factory of thirty-three plans submitted in compe-
tition After the adoption of the plan the design
ers were enpiyed to carry it out and in order to
WEATHER pOAllCdl QlLlcultleS were required ~ PAO-
coed as rapidly as practicable. AT one time they
employed nearly four thousand men. securing,
under great local difficulties degree of discipline
efficiency and economy hardly known any other
municipal public work in the country.
AT the outbreak of the Civil War. in 1851, Mr.
Olmsted was appointed by the President a member
OF the National Sanitary Commission. and was
asked by his associates to take the duty of organ
izing and managing its executive business. In the
fall of 1863 the work of the commission having
deIeiored and he
ment Of its objects assured. he resigned the
place, and passed the next two years on the Pa
cifc slope. He there served as chairman of the
California State Commission, taking the custody
of the Yosemite and Mariposa reservations coded
to the State by Congress as public parks. In 1865
he returned to New-York. and entered. with Mr.
Naux, upon the general practice of landscape aTchl
lecture. In 1872 his partnership with Mr.. Vaux was
dissolved and he served for a time president
and treasurer of the Park Commission of New
York and was afterwaro the landscape architect OF
the city for nearly six In 1878 he removed to
Boston and in 1884 took into partnership his son,
John Charles Olmsted. and in 1889 Henry Sargent
Goldman, both of whom had received their profess
sional training in his office and had afterward
pursued studies in Europe under his advice.
Mr.. Omsted employed upon about eighty
public recreation grounds, among the more impor-
tant of which those of New-York Brooklyn,
Boston, Bridgeport, Trenton Montreal Buffalo
Chicago, Milwaukee, Louisville and Kansas City.
He also had a large practice in the laying out or
towns and of suburban villa districts and private
grounds, and in pursuit of this practice had visited
every State in the Union. He crossed the CONT
nent eight times. He the designer of the
grounds of the Capitol Washington, including
the marble terrace, the grand staircase and other
structures exterior to the main building: also OF
the general scheme for the restoration and reser-
walton of the natural scenery of Niagara Falls. and,
IN association with Mr.. VauX, of the plan now be-
ing carried out by the State Of New-York for this
purpose.
one Of the most important works IN which Mr..
OImsted was engaged was the laying out of the
grounds for the Worlds Fair in Jackson Park,
Chicago, and the success which attended that work
most marked. Riverside Drive and Park and
Morningside Park. in this city, after his
plans, were the Arnold Arboretunl and the Back
Bay Fens, In Boston, well as Prospect Park,
Brooklyn.
Mr.. OInsted was the author Of the following
works: Walks and Talks of an American Farmer
in England" first published in 1852, several times
reprinted edition having been prepared espe-
cally for the common school libraries of the State
of Ohio "A Journey In the Seaboard Slave States
in the Back Country GS6). Transat tons of the
Journey in Texas have been published in Paris
and Leipsic. At the outbreak of the Rebellion
compilation of the last three works was published
in London, under the title of The Cotton King
dom"
In addition to the above books Mr. Onsted wrote
much on special problems of his profession, to be
found in various periodicals and in printed reports
of park commissions and other bodies He re-
ceived the honorary degree of A. NJ from Amherst
College. and both A. NJ. and LII D from Harvard
and Yale colleges; he honorary member of
the American Institute Architects, of the Boston
Society of Architects, Of the London Metropolitan
Public Gardens Association, of the Military Order
of the LOYAL Legion and of the Harvard Phi Beta
Kappa. He of the founders and homo
rary member of the Metropolitan Museum of Art
and Of the Union League and an active member of
Botolph Club of Boston and belonged to many
scientific and benevolent societies.