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CHAPTER I
SUPERINTENDENT OF CENTRAL PARK
1857–1858
This Chapter Contains Olmsted’s description of his efforts in the summer of 1857 to secure appointment as superintendent of construction of Central Park, and of the political difficulties he encountered as superintendent. The memoir “Passages in the Life of an Unpractical Man” describes his first dealings with Egbert Viele, the park’s engineer and his antagonist for years to come. It also gives a vivid picture of Olmsted’s introduction to the park’s labor force in the midst of the unrest caused by the Panic of 1857.
Other documents, notably the reports to the park board of October 6 and 16, show the extent of Olmsted’s knowledge, as he began work on the park, of such matters as thorough drainage and the importation of trees and shrubs. In the report of October 16 he indicates what plant materials should be used in different sections of the park, and describes the kinds of scenery he would like to see created there.
The last letter in the chapter, to his father, reveals how hard Olmsted drove himself in the months following the death of his brother, John Hull Olmsted—superintending the park during the day and devoting much of the night to designing a plan for the park and completing A Journey in the Back Country.
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To the President of the Commissioners of the Central Park
| New York, August 12, 1857 |
To the President of the Commissioners of the Central Park;
Sir,
I beg leave to recommend myself for the Office of Superintendent of the Central Park.
For the past sixteen years my chief interest and occupation has been with those subjects, familiarity with which is most needed in this office. Economy in the application of agricultural labor has especially engaged my attention, and my observations on this subject have been extensively published and discussed in this country and reprinted in Europe. For ten years I have practically engaged in the direction and superintendence of agricultural laborers and gardeners in the vicinity of New York.
I have visited and examined as a student most of the large parks of Europe—British, French, Italian and German; and while thus engaged have given special attention to police details and the employment of labor in them.
Evidence of this is afforded by my published works, to which I have the honor to add the accompanying testimony.
Your obedient servant
Fred. Law Olmsted