Blacknight
Well-known member
Mr. Frederick Law Olmsted was a visionary for his time who devoted his life's work to bring nature closer to urban dwellers. Through the clever arrangement of nature's resources he made it possible to enjoy a natural setting; an oasis in a land obfuscated by mounds of concrete & rows of cars. You might even say he was a naturalist, except that he would feng shui hills, trees & water in such a way that you would never know it was man made.
His first major work was Central Park. Soon after completing the park, Olmsted assumed the leadership of Sanitary Commission during the American Civil War. He went on to design parks including: (from wikipedia) Prospect Park; suburban Chicago's Riverside parks; the park system for Buffalo, New York; Milwaukee, Wisconsin's grand necklace of parks; and the Niagara Reservation at Niagara Falls.
(Check out this link for all the projects he was involved in.)
Interestingly, Mr. Olmsted didn't discover his career until his mid thirties. He also suffered & witnessed numerous tragedies growing up. He witnessed his mother overdose as a very young child as detailed by this quote from here:
That prior history, we now know, was trauma-ridden. Indeed, it seems possible that both his prolonged search for fulfilling work and his ultimate vocation stemmed from an accumulation of tragedies. The primary shock was his mother’s fatal overdose of laudanum after a prolonged postpartum depression. Olmsted described the experience in an undated fragment:
When I was three years old I chanced to stray into a room at the crisis of a tragedy therein occurring, and turned and fled from it screaming….It was long before I could be soothed and those nearby said to one another that I would never forget what I had seen.
Evidence suggests that he developed severe posttraumatic stress disorder, a condition reinforced 14 months later when his father married a woman who largely banished the boy from home. Relegated to the care of a succession of teachers and rural clergymen, Olmsted endured further traumas. When he was seven, a teacher whose clothes caught fire burned to death. When he was 10, a stepsister died from measles. Between the ages of nine and 14, he boarded with a pastor who physically abused his pupils.
Frederick Law Olmsted's birthday is April 26th, 1822 in Hartford, Connecticut. Unfortunately, I couldn't locate his time of birth. I learned about this gentleman after watching a documentary on his life while surfing the tv. It was on pbs & it was an excellent encapsulation of his work.
Here's his chart using the above info:
I find it interesting that uranus & neptune conjunct while aspecting so many of his other planets. Mr. Olmsted spent his life trying to make fantasy into reality through the creation of beautiful parks. He also slipped into senility in his old age & lived his remaining years in an asylum, McLean Hospital, where ironically, he proposed a layout for the grounds, but was ultimately rejected.
His first major work was Central Park. Soon after completing the park, Olmsted assumed the leadership of Sanitary Commission during the American Civil War. He went on to design parks including: (from wikipedia) Prospect Park; suburban Chicago's Riverside parks; the park system for Buffalo, New York; Milwaukee, Wisconsin's grand necklace of parks; and the Niagara Reservation at Niagara Falls.
(Check out this link for all the projects he was involved in.)
Interestingly, Mr. Olmsted didn't discover his career until his mid thirties. He also suffered & witnessed numerous tragedies growing up. He witnessed his mother overdose as a very young child as detailed by this quote from here:
That prior history, we now know, was trauma-ridden. Indeed, it seems possible that both his prolonged search for fulfilling work and his ultimate vocation stemmed from an accumulation of tragedies. The primary shock was his mother’s fatal overdose of laudanum after a prolonged postpartum depression. Olmsted described the experience in an undated fragment:
When I was three years old I chanced to stray into a room at the crisis of a tragedy therein occurring, and turned and fled from it screaming….It was long before I could be soothed and those nearby said to one another that I would never forget what I had seen.
Evidence suggests that he developed severe posttraumatic stress disorder, a condition reinforced 14 months later when his father married a woman who largely banished the boy from home. Relegated to the care of a succession of teachers and rural clergymen, Olmsted endured further traumas. When he was seven, a teacher whose clothes caught fire burned to death. When he was 10, a stepsister died from measles. Between the ages of nine and 14, he boarded with a pastor who physically abused his pupils.
Frederick Law Olmsted's birthday is April 26th, 1822 in Hartford, Connecticut. Unfortunately, I couldn't locate his time of birth. I learned about this gentleman after watching a documentary on his life while surfing the tv. It was on pbs & it was an excellent encapsulation of his work.
Here's his chart using the above info:
I find it interesting that uranus & neptune conjunct while aspecting so many of his other planets. Mr. Olmsted spent his life trying to make fantasy into reality through the creation of beautiful parks. He also slipped into senility in his old age & lived his remaining years in an asylum, McLean Hospital, where ironically, he proposed a layout for the grounds, but was ultimately rejected.