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The American History Collection > The Papers of Frederick Law Olmsted Digital Edition > Main Series > Volume 1: The Formative Years > Appendices and Indexes > I: Chronology, 1822–1852
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I
CHRONOLOGY OF FREDERICK LAW OLMSTED

1822–1852

1822
April 26 Born in Hartford, Connecticut.
1825
September 2 His brother, John Hull Olmsted, born.
1826
Febuary 28 His mother, Charlotte Law Hull Olmsted, dies.
April Begins schooling at the first of three “dame’s schools” he will attend in Hartford.
1827
April 25 His father, John Olmsted, and Mary Ann Bull marry.
June 3 He and his brother are baptized.
1828
April 20 to
August 2		 Visits his uncle Owen Pitkin Olmsted in Geneseo, New York; goes to Niagara Falls.
1829
November 9 to
September 27, 1830		 Boards and studies with Zolva Whitmore in North Guilford, Connecticut.
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1830
September 28 to
May 1831		 Attends Hartford Grammar School.
1831
May 18 to
September		 Attends Ellington High School in Ellington, Connecticut.
October 8 to
April 30, 1836		 Boards and studies with Joab Brace in Newington, Connecticut.
1836
Spring Suffers severe sumach poisoning, causing temporary partial blindness.
July 1 to
August 16		 Boards and studies with George Van Vechten Eastman in Saybrook, Connecticut.
September 5 He and his brother, John, attend Hartford Grammar School.
December 1 to
June 1837		 Attends academy (Edgar Perkins, principal) in East Hartford.
1837
November 19 to
November 9, 1838		 Boards and studies with Frederick A. Barton at Andover, Massachusetts.
1838
August 8 to 22 Travels to the White Mountains and New Hampshire coast with his father, stepmother, and brother, John.
December 19 to
April 6, 1840		 Boards and studies with Frederick A. Barton in Collinsville, Connecticut.
1839
December 9 to 24 Travels with his father to Washington, D.C.
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1840
May 9 to
November 3		 His brother, John, travels to Europe and studies in Paris.
August 18 to
March 1842		 Works in New York for dry-goods importing firm of Benkard and Hutton.
1842
September 28 His brother, John, enters Yale College.
Fall Visits John at Yale.
1843
March 27 to
April 7		 Goes to New York, ships on bark Ronaldson, bound for Canton.
April 23 Ronaldson sails for Canton.
September 8 Ronaldson anchors in Whampoa Reach, near Canton.
December 30 Ronaldson sails for New York from Whampoa.
1844
January 27 to
April		 His brother, John, goes to West Indies for his health.
April 15 Ronaldson arrives in New York.
October 30 to
March 21, 1845		 Visits and studies at the farm of his uncle David Brooks in Cheshire, Connecticut.
1845
May 12 to
August 13		 Lives and studies farming with Joseph Welton in Waterbury, Connecticut.
October 1 to
January 7, 1846		 Attends lectures of Professor Benjamin Silliman at Yale College.
1846
February 16 His half-sister Ada Theodosia dies, age six.
April 10 Leaves Hartford and goes to George Geddes’s farm in Camillus, New York.
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August 27 to
September 10		 Travels with his father and brother to Niagara Falls, Montreal, Quebec, Lake Champlain, and Lake George. Returns to Geddes farm.
October 4 Returns to Hartford.
November 10 His father buys him a farm at Sachem’s Head, Guilford, Connecticut.
1847
February Moves to Sachem’s Head.
August His brother, John, graduates from Yale.
1848
January 1 His father buys him a farm on Staten Island.
March 5 Moves to Staten Island.
October His brother, John, arrives in New York to study medicine.
1849
February 6 to
March 8		 In Hartford: reads Macaulay’s History of England with Emily Perkins, and Ruskin’s Modern Painters with Sophie Stevens.
Fall Is elected corresponding secretary of the newly formed Richmond County Agricultural Society on Staten Island.
1850
February His brother, John, and Mary Perkins announce their engagement.
April 30 Sails for England with his brother, John, and Charles Loring Brace.
May 27 to
c. June 21		 Travels from Liverpool to London, much of the way on foot.
July 9 to
August 10		 Travels in France, Belgium, and Germany.
August 10 to
October 4		 Travels in England, Ireland, and Scotland.
October 4 Sails from Glasgow.
October 24 Arrives in New York.
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1851
April 29 Frederick Kingsbury and Alathea Scovill marry.
May “The People’s Park at Birkenhead, Near Liverpool” published in the Horticulturist.
August Briefly engaged to Emily Perkins.
August 5 His brother, John, suffers severe lung hemorrhage, confirming that he has tuberculosis.
October 16 His brother, John, and Mary Perkins marry.
December “A Voice From the Sea” published in the American Whig Review.
1852
January “A Note on the True Soldat Labourer Pear” published in the Horticulturist.
February 18 Walks and Talks of an American Farmer in England, volume I, published by George Palmer Putnam.
July 29 “The Phalanstery and Phalansterians” published in the New-York Daily Tribune.
 
 
 

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