it's been really fun, and my book is called a genius of place, the life of frederick olmsted.was a pretty restless genius so i thought it makes the most sense to break my speech up into a couple different parts. first i'm going to describe the path that he took to becoming an architect and then briefly describe some of his greatest achievements, some of his greatest designs in the context of how he traveled and how the sexually informs his masterful design and then there will be time for questions of course. olmstead was born in hartford connecticut in 1822. he was born into a pretty prosperous family. his father was a merchant and as was the habit in that era, olmstead was sent away for his schooling. he entered into a series of arrangements with really poor country parsons. they were besieged and bis said. they had their parsonage duties many of them running small farms on the side to make extra income and that left them very little time and focus for their thirdx$ role as educators. he was mischievous as a boy so he took full what vantage of the situation. he was in the hab

and my book is called "genius of place: the life of frederick law olmstead." olmsted was a pretty restless genius, so it makes the most sense to break my speech up into a couple of different parts. first i'm going to describe the really circuitous path he took to become a landscape architect, and then i'm going to briefly describe some of his greatest achievements in the context of how all the various eddies he traveled and career experience, how those actually informed his most masterful design. and then there'll be time for questions, of course. olmsted was born in hartford, connecticut n1822. he was born into a pretty prosperous family. his father was a dry goods merchant, and as was the habit in that era, olmsted was sent away for his schooling. he entered into a whole series of arrangements with really poor country parsons. these parsons, they were besieged and beset. they had, they had their parsonage duties, many of them were running small farms on the side in order to make extra income, and that left them very little time and very little focus for their third

my book is called "genius of place: the life of frederick law olmsted." first, i'll describe the path he took in becoming a landscape architect, and then i'll describe his greatest designs in the context of how all the various aide dis he traveled down and the career experience, how this informed his most masterful design, and then there's time for questions. he was born in connecticut in 1822, a pretty prosperous family. his father was a dry goods merchant, and as was the hat in that era, olmsted was sent away for schooling. he entered into a series of arrangements with poor country parsons. they were besieged and beset. they had their par soggage duty, many of them running small farms on the side to make extra income leaving little time for their third role as educators. olmsted was mischeefl -- mischievous as a boy. he wandered around setting traps for quail, wandered around in the woods, got very little schooling, but got an perks for landscape, particularly the landscape of connecticut. when olmsted was 14 years old, he got a terrible case of poisen

olmsted's work in tact, and find his vivid democratic spirit so very alive. thank you very much. .. [applause] [inaudible conversations] >> peaceful abolition of slavery affecting frederick olmstead in his persuasion of england of joining the south in the civil war? >> let's see, the basis of abolitionism is greasing. he was a gradualist, another qualification of getting the times job. they wanted someone objective or sort of objective to go there, and gradualists believed slavery was wrong, but thought you couldn't impose -- one region o couldn't impose one and that also this was a complicated institution that needed time to be unwound. and so for that reason they thought because he wasn't a rabid abolition they thought a good person to go to the south and as you read his 48 dispatches, you see olmstead make an amazing transformation from being a gradualist to being someone who really becomes an abolitionist precisely because of what he witnessed and one of the most amazing thing he witnessed he saw a slave -- one thing when he was traveling one person jealously guarded with him was the actual punishment for the slaves. he travels around the south and no one punishes a