EDITORIAL POLICY

The purpose of the Frederick Law Olmsted Papers project is to publish, in annotated form, the most significant of Olmsted’s letters, unpublished writings, professional reports, and articles for newspapers and periodicals. The letterpress edition will consist of twelve volumes: ten volumes arranged chronologically, one volume containing major documents on park design and city planning, and one large-format volume of plans and views of landscape designs.

Document Selection Although the process of choosing documents for a selected edition of papers is to some extent subjective, the editors require every document published to meet at least one of three criteria: that it provide insight into Olmsted’s character, present valuable commentary on his times, or contain an important statement on landscape design.

Annotation The editors believe that it is their responsibility to make clear the context within which Olmsted wrote the documents selected and to explain the significance of certain statements that readers not expert in the field might otherwise not adequately comprehend. They believe also that part of their function is to identify the persons, places, and events Olmsted mentions, and to explain his relation to them. The annotation in these volumes is fuller than it would be in a complete edition of Olmsted’s papers, where the documents would more frequently annotate one another. In order to supply background information and provide continuity within each volume, the editors make use of volume introductions, biographical directories, and chapter headnotes, as well as chronologies, itineraries, genealogies, and other aids for the reader.

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Treatment of Text The intent of the editors is to provide a text as close to the original as possible without causing undue difficulty for the reader. In some instances we alter the original text in the interest of clarity: in such cases, we furnish guides to our alterations that permit recovery of the original text.

The complete existing text of each document is published. All of the words that Olmsted wrote and did not cross out are presented, with the exception of inadvertently repeated words. The treatment of illegible and missing words is as follows:

[. . .] indicates illegible words or words missing because of mutilation of the manuscript.

[italic] indicates the editors’ reading of partially missing words.

[roman] indicates a word supplied by the editors.

In the occasional instance where a passage does not make sense without substitution of a word or words for those in the original version, the editors make the needed substitution and supply the original wording in an endnote. When the word that Olmsted wrote appears not to be the one he meant to write and the correct word cannot be discerned, the editors suggest, in an endnote, an alternative word or phrase that seems closer to Olmsted’s meaning. Where the document is not in Olmsted’s hand and what appears to be incorrect wording may be due to the error of a transcriber or typesetter, one of these two approaches is used as well.

The published texts include words and phrases deleted by Olmsted only when they add material that does not appear at some other point in the document. If they are integral to the document, such deleted words are presented in the text in italics and in brackets. If the deleted words are less directly relevant to the theme of the document, they are given in an endnote.

The principles of transcription stated here are applied by the editors to all kinds of documents, including drafts of articles and lectures that exist in “fair copy” as well as fragmentary drafts. When preparing a text from manuscript fragments that have no clear order, the editors construct a text, adding such indications as microfilm reel and frame numbers, extra spaces between lines of text, dividing lines, ellipses, and endnotes, to mark the transition from one segment of the original text to another. When a document exists in both printed and manuscript form, and Olmsted wrote the document for publication (as, for instance, with park reports), the most complete version is used as the basic text. If the other version or versions contain significant variations from that text, the differences are described and quoted in notes added at appropriate places [43] in the document. The first, unnumbered, endnote to the document explains the textual treatment in such cases.

For manuscripts that were published at a later date, the original version is used as the basic text. Differences between the two versions that appear to be printer’s or transcriber’s errors are noted in endnotes, as are changes apparently made by Olmsted for the published version; obvious typographical errors, such as incorrect, missing, or transposed letters, are silently corrected when a published version of a document is being used as the text.

At the end of this volume the editors provide a list of textual alterations, giving the original form of texts or quoted material where a change has not been indicated in endnotes or by brackets in the text. The list indicates the original form of contractions that have been expanded_ It gives each deleted or altered punctuation mark with the word preceding and the word following it, and indicates added punctuation by giving the words preceding and following it. The list indicates the original form of misspelled words that have been corrected in the text, except as noted below.

Spelling Olmsted consistently misspelled words with double consonants (as “dissapoint” for “disappoint”). He frequently misspelled words with double vowels (consistently writing “lose” as “loose”), and he misspelled words with the diphthong “ie” (as “cheif” for “chief”). The editors silently correct these three kinds of Olmsted’s misspellings. All other misspelled words are presented in the text as Olmsted wrote them. If the misspelling makes a word particularly difficult to interpret, however, it is corrected and its misspelled form is presented in the list of textual alterations. Terms such as “can not” and “no where” have been silently corrected to their modern-day forms “cannot” and “nowhere.”

Paragraphing The editors follow Olmsted’s indications of internal paragraphing. Where he indicated a paragraph by a long dash or a large space between sentences, we silently make a new paragraph. We do the same where he inserted a paragraph symbol or where a change in subject matter between two pages of manuscript indicates that he used the page change as a paragraph. Sections of conversations are silently rendered as paragraphs. Other paragraphing introduced by the editors is indicated in the list of textual alterations.

Contractions The editors present the original form of abbreviations and contractions. Superscripts are reproduced. Apostrophes are silently added if they are missing from the contraction “nt” (for “not”), from conjugations of the verb “to be,” and from possessives. Particularly awkward or unclear contractions are expanded and the original form is indicated in the list of textual alterations.

Punctuation The editors do not regularize Olmsted’s punctuation or make it consistently grammatical; but we do make changes in his [44] punctuation when it would be difficult for the reader to work out the meaning of a passage in its original form. In long and convoluted sentences, or where the original text is likely to cause the reader to misread phrases, the editors alter punctuation. We occasionally delete punctuation where it unnecessarily complicates already difficult passages, and we add punctuation in order to clarify basic sentence structure. These changes are not indicated in the text itself by brackets or other symbols, since that would introduce new distractions and complexity at the very place where they would be most troublesome. Instead, the changes are given in the list of textual alterations. We silently supply periods where the end of a line served for Olmsted as the end of a sentence.

Marginalia Material that Olmsted added in the margins is presented at the point where he indicated that it belongs. If such material has no clear place within the text, it is printed at the end of the document with an explanatory note. Notes or jottings on a document by other persons are not included in the text, but if informative are given in an endnote. Olmsted’s infrequent footnotes are presented at the bottom of the page.

Place and Date of Documents Dates for documents are given as they appear in the original. If that information is partial, incorrect, or missing, the probable date or time period is supplied in brackets, with an explanatory endnote if needed. Printed letterheads that are misleading are not reproduced but are noted in the first, unnumbered, endnote of the letter.

Arrangement of Documents Documents are presented in chronological order except for occasional pieces such as autobiographical fragments or reminiscences written at a later time than the period covered in the volume. Such pieces are presented with the documents from the period they describe.

Citation of Sources Full bibliographical information is provided in the first citation of a source in each chapter, except for sources that appear in a volume’s list of “Short Titles Used in Citations.” The latter are cited consistently by short title throughout the volume. A full listing of sources about an individual is given in the note accompanying the first mention of that person in the documents of a volume. In subsequent references, sources are given only for additional information supplied. Birth and death dates for persons mentioned in the text of the documents are given in the first note identifying them and, for selected persons, in the index.

If no repository is given for a manuscript, this means that it may be found in the Frederick Law Olmsted Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.