Frederick Law Olmsted Sr.

Olm­sted stu­died en­gi­nee­ring and che­mi­cal and phy­si­cal sci­ence in their re­la­tion to agri­cul­ture at Yale, then en­ga­ged him­s­elf to a far­mer as a com­mon la­bo­rer with a view of learning the prac­tical de­tails of far­ming. When the Cen­tral Park Com­mis­sion was crea­ted in New York City in 1856, he was awar­ded the hig­hest pre­mium for his plans for its lay­ing out, there being thirty-four com­pe­ti­tors. The fol­lo­wing year he was ap­poin­ted land­scape ar­chi­tect and su­per­in­ten­dent of the Park. Du­ring the early part of the Civil War, he ser­ved as se­cretary to the United Sta­tes Sa­ni­tary Com­mis­sion. In as­so­cia­tion with his part­ners he de­si­gned, be­si­des the parks for New York, those of Brook­lyn, Bos­ton, Mon­treal, Chi­cago, and other ci­ties as well as the grounds and ter­ra­ces of the Ca­pi­tol at Wa­shing­ton and the Co­lum­bian Ex­po­si­tion in Chi­cago.