CHAPTER VIII
MAY 1893–NOVEMBER 1893

The late spring and summer of 1893 marked a time of reflection for Olmsted. In an illuminating sequence of four letters to Mariana Griswold Van Rensselaer in May and June—written to aid her in preparing a biographical article for the Century magazine—Olmsted lays out the circumstances of his early life that he considered most important to his development as a landscape architect. Similarly, a letter to Yale President Timothy Dwight, after Olmsted learned he was to be awarded an honorary degree there, shows the depth of his affections for the school that educated his brother and stepson and his enduring friendships with members of the class of 1846. A September letter to longtime friend Frederick J. Kingsbury offers Olmsted’s assessment of the state of his firm, the progress of his sons’ careers, and his sense of his family. His September 1893 letter to Van Rensselaer is his response to her article and especially the lack of credit it gave to Calvert Vaux for his part in the design of Central Park’s sunken transverse roads.

The World’s Columbian Exposition continued to occupy Olmsted’s attention even after it formally opened on May 1. His June letter to Daniel H. Burnham enumerates the flaws that Olmsted found in the execution of the exposition’s design, from inadequate maintenance and price-gouging vendors to screeching steamboats that interfered with visitors’ capacity to enjoy the scenery. Olmsted’s address to the World’s Congress of Architects, delivered by proxy while he was ill at home and later published in three journals, highlights the key challenges Olmsted faced in designing the exposition and the primary motives for the fair’s central elements. Finally, his October letter to Burnham includes Olmsted’s assessment of what he saw as the fair’s most important legacy: its validation of the progress of civilization in the United States.

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Other letters in this chapter address the Olmsted firm’s commitments across the nation. A letter to William R. Ware presents his recommendations for the new campus of Columbia College at Morningside Heights. A letter to William Canby explains the circumstances that led to the firm not being retained as landscape architects for the park commission of Wilmington, Delaware, and defends the firm against accusations of neglect and impropriety. To his old friend H. W. S. Cleveland, Olmsted writes a concise statement about the proper role of park commissioners in securing rural scenery for town residents. In a letter to Charles McNamee, Olmsted outlines the work he hopes to accomplish during the fall planting season. A November 4 letter to William A. Stiles reflects on the professional rivalry between architects and landscape architects, and defends Olmsted’s design for the World’s Columbian Exposition against criticism that its waterways made pedestrian circulation among the buildings more difficult. A letter to his partners of November 1 presents Olmsted’s assessment of the firm’s strengths and weaknesses and identifies the current projects he believes most important to the firm’s long-term success. The November 10 letter to partners urges a vigorous and carefully-planned defense of the firm against accusations of neglect in designing the Hot Springs Reservation in Arkansas.