It has been a long day and I don’t have the time or mental energy to say much beyond a quick mention that today is Frederick Law Olmsted’s 200th birthday. I mentioned the Olmsted bicentennial to a colleague early this morning who had been unaware. Oddly enough, ten minutes later he forwarded me something from his significant other who had been reading about it at essentially the exact moment. She sent it to him to read and asked also that he pass it along to yours truly. Later in class we spoke for a time about the journalist, social reformer, and landscape architect’s life and achievements. We have examined big chunks of Olmsted’s life and times over the past several months, including a visit to Prospect Park to see for ourselves. Actually we jumped the class off in early February with Olmsted’s November 1865 return from California just after the Civil War. I noticed earlier that there is a lot going today and this week to mark the Olmsted 200. It is hardly a mere local story. If you want to know his legacy, just look around you.

(image/”A Description of the New York Central Park, with Illustrations” by Albert Finch Bellows via British Library)