The Papers of Frederick Law Olmsted

This Rotunda edition of The Papers of Frederick Law Olmsted reproduces in their entirety the contents of ten volumes from the original letterpress edition published by Johns Hopkins University Press: all nine volumes from the Main Series, and Supplementary Series volume 1. (The second and third volumes of the Supplementary Series are heavily illustrated oversized books that do not lend themselves to digital publication in our format.) Information about the Frederick Law Olmsted Papers Project can be found on the website of the Olmsted Network, formerly known as the National Association for Olmsted Parks.

The quality of graphics in the digital edition is based on the source materials available from the print edition. All graphics were black-and-white or grayscale in print. For Main Series volumes 7 through 9 we were able to use print-final PDF supplied by Johns Hopkins, with embedded high-resolution graphics. Volumes 1 through 6 and Supplemental Series volume 1 were published between 1977 and 1997, meaning that page images and graphics all derive from flatbed scanning of the printed volumes. For large detailed images in the digital edition, expanded versions can be viewed by clicking on the “enlarge” icon: .

Acknowledgments

The Johns Hopkins University Press graciously made available both their PDF for recent volumes and a full set of XML files and page scans created by Sue Holbrook Perdue, formerly of Documents Compass, from Main Series volumes 1–7 and Supplemental Series 1. Our conversion vendor, Apex CoVantage, created XML versions to our specifications of volumes 8 and 9.

Anne “Dede” Neal Petri, president of the Olmsted Network, has collaborated with UVA Press on project development, and her dedication to the Olmsted Bicentennial, Olmsted 200, provided the impetus for launching this edition in April 2022. Michele Clark with the Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site assisted us in finding graphics for website design; Rotunda graphics designer Bill Womack of Helios, Inc., created the home page layout.

These Papers are available open access, thanks to a generous subvention in 2023 from the Olmsted Network, supported by The Caroline Loughlin Fund.