Mr. Olmstead, Writing and The South

Facebook post June 28, 2012.   Get this: All over the world Frederick Law Olmsted (the man credited with the creation of Louisville's parks system and Central Park in NY) is known as the Father of American Landscape Architecture. But prior to 1865 he was a respected author of many titles about Southern culture, and a journalist for the NY Times -- a Southern correspondent who covered slavery economy and Southern society (he believed slavery was morally odious, expensive and economically unsound), and whose column "Letters From The Southwest" appeared under the pseudonym "Yeoman." It wasn't until after his work as a journalist that he became superintendent of Central Park where he was responsible for the landscape design of its 843 acres, and from which the seed was planted for that which defines him (for most of us, I'm guessing) today! Thank you, Mr. Olmstead, for not only your imagination of distinguished landscape, but for your articulation of the realities of 19th Century South which helped toward the abolition of human trade in the states! Kevin. Here's more: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/09/olmsteds-southern-landscapes/