CHAPTER VI
APRIL 1892–AUGUST 1892

The letters in this chapter were written during Olmsted’s European trip in the spring and summer of 1892. Originally intending to be away for six weeks to recover his health and supervise the education of his son Rick and protege Philip Codman, Olmsted’s condition worsened while abroad and for much of June and July he convalesced at the home of Henry Rayner, a prominent British physician who was married to Rosa Field, daughter of Olmsted’s friend and former Staten Island neighbor, Alfred Field. The letters during this period are remarkably illuminating, as Olmsted used his time abroad to search for lessons to be applied at the World’s Columbian Exposition and Biltmore. Letters to Henry Sargent Codman of April 20 and 21 emphasize the importance of a high degree of maintenance at the exposition, while that of May 25 offers advice on planting the shores of the Lagoon and Wooded Island. His report to partners on L’Exposition Universelle and letter of May 1 reveal important lessons he learned in Paris and while traveling in the Loire Valley. Olmsted’s letter to his partners of July 9–11 recounts the activities of Rick and George Glessner in exploring metropolitan London. His letter to his partners of July 17 expresses his delight at spending several days boating on the Thames, and offers his observations on the waterside planting he believed could be applied to the exposition. The letter to Codman of July 30 reflects on what he has learned during the trip and his dissatisfaction with contemporary developments in landscape architecture in France and England. The state of English gardening, and the places he visited during the final days in England, is the subject of Olmsted’s late August letter to William Robinson.