Frederick Law Olmsted Archives - Page 3 of 3

Happy Birthday to Architect Robert Peabody
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Happy Birthday to Architect Robert Peabody

HISTORY

Happy Birthday to Architect Robert Peabody

Today we celebrate the anniversary of the birth of Robert Swain Peabody on February 22, 1845. Peabody was a cofounder of the Boston architectural firm of Peabody & Stearns, designer of Machinery Hall (also known as the Palace of Mechanical Arts) and the Massachusetts Pavilion for the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago. Architects invited by Daniel Burnham to contribute building for the World's Columbian Exposition gathered in Chicago on January 10, 1891. Robert S. Peabody traveled from the east [...]

By Scott|2022-03-05T08:35:09-06:00February 22nd, 2018|Categories: HISTORY|Tags: Abraham Gottlieb, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Charles McKim, Daniel Burnham, Dankmar Adler, Frederick Law Olmsted, George Post, Henry Codman, Henry Ives Cobb, Henry Van Brunt, Jackson Park, John Root, Louis Sullivan, Machinery Hall, Massachusetts State Building, Peabody & Stearns, Richard Hunt, Robert S. Peabody, Rookery Building, Solon S. Beman, William Le Baron Jenney|0 Comments

Dominating Objects of Interest: Olmsted and Obama
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Dominating Objects of Interest: Olmsted and Obama

NEWS

Dominating Objects of Interest: Olmsted and Obama

“How much should the maxims of a 19th-century park designer tie the hands of a 21st-century president?” asks Edward McClelland in his piece “Olmsted vs. Obama: Inside the Pushback Against the Presidential Library” published this week by Chicago Magazine. A whimsical illustration by Graham Roumieu that accompanies the article shows of a ghostly zephyr of Frederick Law Olmsted, landscape architect of the 1893 World’s Fair, fretting over the fate of his beloved Jackson Park. The article summarizes the positions [...]

By Scott|2019-01-22T18:42:33-06:00February 9th, 2018|Categories: NEWS|Tags: Frederick Law Olmsted, Jackson Park, Obama Presidential Center|0 Comments

Updates on the Obama Presidential Center plans for Jackson Park
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Updates on the Obama Presidential Center plans for Jackson Park

NEWS

Updates on the Obama Presidential Center plans for Jackson Park

January brought a flurry of planning activity for the Obama Presidential Center (OPC) along with heavy gusts of protest against the proposed development in Jackson Park. Both those favoring and those opposing the OPC proposal looked back to the 1893 World's Fair and invoked Frederick Law Olmsted's vision for the park after the Columbian Exposition to support their position. On January 8, the Obama Foundation released new design plans for OPC space on the west side of the lagoon. The [...]

By Scott|2021-05-05T14:21:30-05:00January 28th, 2018|Categories: NEWS|Tags: Calvert Vaux, Children's Building, Frederick Law Olmsted, Horticultural Building, Midway Plaisance, Obama Presidential Center, University of Chicago, Woman's Building|0 Comments

Harriet Monroe’s History of the World’s Fair (Part 4)
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Harriet Monroe’s History of the World’s Fair (Part 4)

REPRINTS

Harriet Monroe’s History of the World’s Fair (Part 4)

[Previous installments of this series include Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.] "John Root made the Fair until he died," asserted Owen F. Aldis. We present this fourth part of Harriet Monroe’s “The World's Columbian Exposition” from John Wellborn Root: A Study of His Life and Work (Houghton, Mifflin & Company, 1896) on the anniversary of John Root’s death, on January 15, 1891. In this section, Monroe describes the continuing chaos and “hot war” in the fall of [...]

By Scott|2018-03-11T14:45:27-05:00January 15th, 2018|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: Charles Hutchinson, Frederick Law Olmsted, Harlow Higinbotham, Harriet Monroe, Harriet Monroe’s History of the World’s Fair, Henry Codman, Jackson Park, John Root, Lake Front Park, Owen F. Aldis, South Park Board, Washington Park|0 Comments

Harriet Monroe’s History of the World’s Fair (Part 3)
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Harriet Monroe’s History of the World’s Fair (Part 3)

REPRINTS

Harriet Monroe’s History of the World’s Fair (Part 3)

[Previous installments of this series include Part 1 and Part 2] Today marks the 125th anniversary of the passing of Henry Sargent Codman, who died unexpectedly while recovering from an appendectomy on January 13, 1893, at the young age of 29. As Frederick Law Olmsted's protégé, Codman influenced the design of the Columbian Exposition fairgrounds in substantial and creative ways, as described in this third part of Harriet Monroe’s “The World's Columbian Exposition” from John Wellborn Root: A Study [...]

By Scott|2018-03-11T14:45:39-05:00January 13th, 2018|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: Frederick Law Olmsted, Harriet Monroe, Harriet Monroe’s History of the World’s Fair, Henry Codman, Jackson Park, John Root, Lake Front Park, shirt plan, Washington Park|0 Comments

Harriet Monroe’s History of the World’s Fair (Part 1)
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Harriet Monroe’s History of the World’s Fair (Part 1)

REPRINTS

Harriet Monroe’s History of the World’s Fair (Part 1)

“The World’s Columbian Exposition has never been so well revealed and appreciated as through her imagination and her eyes,” wrote renowned poet William Carlos Williams, describing fellow poet and publisher Harriet Monroe (1860–1936). “And her part in it was distinguished.” Two of Monroe’s distinguished accomplishments served as bookends to the 1893 World’s Fair. The Dedication Day Ceremony held on the fairgrounds on October 21, 1892, featured a reading of an excerpt of her monumental poem “The Columbian Ode.” Harriet [...]

By Scott|2024-04-04T11:39:23-05:00January 9th, 2018|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: Columbian Ode, Exposition Universelle, Frederick Law Olmsted, Grounds and Buildings Committee, Harriet Monroe, Harriet Monroe’s History of the World’s Fair, John Root, Lake Front Park, New York, West Side parks|0 Comments

Is Chicago about to ruin Jackson Park? asks the Cultural Landscape Foundation
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Is Chicago about to ruin Jackson Park? asks the Cultural Landscape Foundation

NEWS

Is Chicago about to ruin Jackson Park? asks the Cultural Landscape Foundation

"Is Chicago about to ruin Jackson Park?" asks Charles A. Birnbaum, President & CEO of the Cultural Landscape Foundation in an opinion piece published this week in The Huffington Post. Birnbaum highlights several major projects affecting the park that in 1893 was home to the Columbian Exposition. Plans for the Obama Presidential Center (OPC) locate it on the west side of Jackson Park lagoon (approximately where the Woman's Building and Horticultural Building once stood), and an associated parking facility will sit on [...]

By Scott|2018-01-04T19:37:01-06:00January 4th, 2018|Categories: NEWS|Tags: Calvert Vaux, Frederick Law Olmsted, Jackson Park, map, Midway Plaisance, Obama Presidential Center, Washington Park|1 Comment

Nov. 30, 2017: “Fair Game” theater show at Northwestern University
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Nov. 30, 2017: “Fair Game” theater show at Northwestern University

EVENTS (past), THEATER

Nov. 30, 2017: “Fair Game” theater show at Northwestern University

An interactive theater show opening soon at Northwestern University will allow audience members to walk through the magic (and menace) of the 1893 World’s Fair. “Fair Game: A Chicago Spectacle” by Sit and Spin Productions explores Chicago in the years 1891 to 1893, as the city builds and then hosts the Columbian Exposition. Written and directed by Eli Newell, the choose-your-own-adventure “FAIR GAME” is described this way: As the 1890s commence and the new century beckons, Chicago is a [...]

By Scott|2023-08-05T08:33:08-05:00November 18th, 2017|Categories: EVENTS (past), THEATER|Tags: Amy Beach, Bertha Palmer, Carter Harrison, Daniel Burnham, Devil in the White City (book), Eugene Patrick Prendergast, Frederick Law Olmsted, George Ferris, H. H. Holmes, John Root, Sol Bloom, Sophia Hayden, theater, Woman's Building|0 Comments