Frederick Law Olmsted Research Paper

Words: 617
Pages: 3

Frederick Law Olmsted was born on the 26 April 1822 in Hartford, Connecticut into the eighth generation of his family who had founded the original settlement in 1636. His cultural heritage greatly influenced his development in the coming years. During his childhood, his mother had died when he was four and his father remarried a friend of his late wife. From growing up with a stepmother and 4 other half siblings he created a strong bond between his younger brother, John Hull but was unfortunately sent away at the age of seven and did not spend a full year with his family again.
Olmsted received his education from his father and this proved to be vital in influencing his future. It was with his father where he learned about the beauty of nature and its surroundings. Here he learned about the picturesque and it was further enhanced when he joined his family for annual trips across the country. His step mother also played a role in his influence as she was also a lover of the picturesque and nature and its plants.
Just before he was ready to join college Olmsted suffered a freak accident in 1836 and was left partially
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Prior to designing the layout of central park, Olmsted had never actually designed a landscape design before in his life. Vaux and he joined a competition to design Central park and after they had one they had won they immediately started working on the site. He insisted that the main green space of the park was to be accessible to every citizen. Olmsted used the influence of the English gardening to help create the design for the park Olmsted included the element of scenery which created picturesque views when designing the park and as well as having the park as a place for communing with nature he also included that the park would have commemorative statues and buildings of history, artists and influential