Scope and Content Note
Records constituting the business files of the Olmsted Associates, Inc., landscape architects from the late nineteenth century to 1971, include material dated as early as 1863, though the bulk of the records spans the years 1884-1950. The records include correspondence, letterbooks, memoranda, reports, plans, specifications, newspaper clippings, photographs, drawings, journals, account books, ledgers, lists, diagrams, blueprints, deeds, and printed matter. The final series of the collection contains material relating to the Olmsted family, especially Frederick Law Olmsted, Sr. (1822-1903), Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. (1870-1957), and John C. Olmsted.
Letterbooks comprising Series A document the firm's work from 1884 to 1899 and contain carbon copies of business letters dealing with subcontractual arrangements, cost estimates, planting procedures and instructions, and requests for information regarding prospective employees. Personal correspondence occasionally filed with these business letters provides insight into the senior Frederick Law Olmsted's business and professional philosophy. Of particular interest is his letter dated 16 November 1891 to Francis G. Newlands reconfirming his ideas on suburban development expressed in many articles over the years. Olmsted stated his views on total area development in conformity with the natural beauty of the land rather than piecemeal tract and lot development disregarding future needs. Indexes to the letterbooks have been reproduced on two reels of microfilm and a printed copy is available in the Manuscript Division Reading Room.
The Job File, Series B, contains correspondence, memoranda, and other material related to projects undertaken by the firm. The file also serves as an administrative file containing personnel and other records as well as a limited amount of personal papers, such as biographical articles relating to the Olmsted family. Many files in this series contain correspondence predating 1900 interfiled after the initiation of a later filing system.
The Job Files series is especially comprehensive for undertakings reflecting tract development, the relationship between beautification and pragmatic land use, and political and private philanthropic efforts to create recreational land areas. The files include landscape designs, layouts, and work arrangements. Many of the reports and other material document financial arrangements for county and municipal park systems in addition to designs for roads, buildings, and gardens seen as interrelated activities in landscape architecture. Projects undertaken by the firm ranged in size from small estates to park systems of thousands of acres, including the development of the Baltimore, Brooklyn, Buffalo, Chicago, and Hartford public park systems as well as privately donated public areas such as Fort Tryon Park in New York City, the gift of John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Other files relate to such universities as Harvard, Stanford, and Tufts, the United States Military Academy, and private estates including "Biltmore," George W. Vanderbilt's manor in North Carolina.
Files pertaining to the District of Columbia contain extensive material on the Capitol and White House grounds, complemented by additional material in Series D, and on the National Zoo, the park system, the Grant and Lincoln memorials, and the work of the Washington Consultative Board and the Fine Arts Commission. Records of the firm's involvement in city planning and suburban development illustrate the Olmsteds' ideas regarding the systematic expansion of urban areas.
George W. Vanderbilt and John D. Rockefeller, Jr., have extensive correspondence in the Job File. Other prominent figures represented include Frances Benjamin Johnston, Henry Cabot Lodge, Gifford Pinchot, Whitelaw Reid, August Saint-Gaudens, William Howard Taft, and Booker T. Washington.
Complementing the Job File are two sets of indexes. The first, termed Job Books, is a numerical listing which includes jobs undertaken by the firm as well as projects in which the firm was interested but did not perform. The second index consists of a microfilm copy of the firm's index cards for the Job File, which lists jobs alphabetically, geographically, and by subject, though this latter index is not complete. Readers may also wish to consult Charles E. Beveridge and Carolyn F. Hoffman, The Master List of Design Projects of The Olmsted Firm, 1857-1950 (New York, 1987).
Following the Job File are two series generally limited to office correspondence never interfiled into the main file. The General Correspondence series, largely routine in nature, contains work requests and comments on park and estate development. Filed with these letters is an exchange of correspondence in 1889-1890 between F. L. Olmsted, Sr., and Robert Underwood Johnson, editor of Century Magazine, dealing with the redwoods in Yosemite, California. A description of the work routine on the United States Capitol grounds by Edward Clark, architect of the Capitol and job foreman, is included in the Capitol grounds correspondence in the Special Correspondence series. Other files in this series relate to landscaping the Chicago World's Fair grounds in 1893 and a law suit filed against the firm in the late 1890s.
Financial records, field reports, nursery orders, and contractual agreements make up the bulk of the Business Records series. Field reports present a detailed description of both small and large undertakings, step-by-step operational procedures, and staff orders. Monthly and quarterly reports in outline form list salary expenses, orders outstanding, and financial outlays for work completed. Complementing these records are journals, 1838-1950, enumerating supply expenses, work orders, income, salaries, and repair and interest expense.
The Scrapbooks and Albums series consists largely of scrapbooks of newspaper clippings dated 1893-1917 which provide local and national coverage of major park systems and world expositions landscaped by the firm. Highlighted in the scrapbooks are the design and development of such projects as parks in Boston and Buffalo, the Pan-American Exposition, 1899-1901, and the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition, 1906-1911. Two photograph albums concern the construction and landscaping of the "Biltmore" estate in North Carolina.
The Family Papers series documents relationships between members of the Olmsted family. The material includes correspondence, a travel journal, letterbooks, and account books. A holograph journal kept by Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., in 1894 outlines his activities while working for the Coast and Geodetic Survey. The landscaping of "Biltmore," also mentioned in his journal, is greatly expanded upon in his letterbooks, emphasizing the design and development of roads, buildings, gardens, and extensive landscaping. Many letters retained in the letterbooks depict Olmsted's social life while working at the estate. A small group of John G. Olmsted's letters record his interests in tariff reforms, his New York Reform Club associations, and his investment interests. A small number of Frederick Law Olmsted, Sr.'s letters, together with letters from his wife, Mary, and his daughter, Marion, reflect family matters.
The Digital Files series consists of digital images of the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition scrapbooks from the Scrapbooks and Albums series. Also included is a brief finding aid for the images. The images were created by members of the Friends of Seattle’s Olmsted Parks between 2004 and 2008 and are in .jpg format. The finding aid is in Microsoft Word format.