Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 08.djvu/144

 OLMSTED

OLMSTED

1836-59. He published an elaborate theory of hailstones in 1830, which caused considerable dis- sent, but finally received the general endorse- ment of meteorologists. After the remarkable meteoric shower of November, 1833. he published a collection of observations that indicated their cosmical origin. Priority in putting forth these conceptions was disputed by Chladni, whose claims do not seem to have been so definitely established as those of Olmsted. With Professor Elias Loomis, he was the first of all observers to find Halley's comet on its return in 1885. He carried on a series of observations of the aurora borealis for several years, the results of which were published in Vol. VHL of the " Smith- sonian Contributions to Knowledge " (185G). He invented the Olmsted stove which brought him considerable profit, and devised a prepara- tion of leiid and rosin for lubricating macliinery. He was a member of many scientific societies in America and Europe, and contributed to their Transactions, and to the leading periodicals of the day. He prepared the following text books, which were almost universalh- used in the higher schools: Students' Commonplace Book (1828); Introduction to Natural Pliilosophy (2 vols., 1831 ); Compendium of Xatural Philosophy {ISS2); Introduction to Astronomy (1839); Compendium of Astronomy (1841); Letters on Astronomy Ad- dressed to a Lady (18-11), and Rudiments of Xat- ural Philosopliy and Astronoyny (1844). He is the author of: Thoughts on the Clerical Profession, essjiys (1817), and Life and Writings of Ebenezer Porter Mason (1842) and other biographical works. He died in New Haven, Conn.. May 13, 185J^.

OLMSTED, Frederick Law, landscape archi- tect, was born in Hartford, Conn., April 26, 1822; son of John and Charlotte (Hull) Olmsted; grandson of Benjamin and Content (Pitkin) Olmstead, and. of Samuel and Abigail (Doolittle) Hull, and a descendant of James Olmsted, Cambridge, Mass., 1632, Hartford, Conn., 1636. Frederick Law Olmsted shipped as a seaman for the East Indies and China in 1840; studied agricultural science and engineering at Yale, 1845^6, and engaged in practical farming, first as a laborer in central New York, and then as the manager of a farm of his own on Staten Island. N.Y. He made a pedestrian tour through Great Britain

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and various continental countries in 1850, and a horseback trip through the southern and south- western parts of the United States, 1852-53, to study the art of landscape gardening. He made a second trip to Europe to investigate the park system in France, Italy and Germany, and in 1856, in connection with Calvert Vaux, prepared the accepted plans for the laying out of Central Park in New York city, and superintended its construction, 1857-61. He was married, June 13, 1859. to Mar}' Cleveland, daughter of Dr. Henry and Sarah (Jones) Perkins of Oswego, N.Y. He directed the working details of the U.S. sanitary conmiission and was its secretary, 1861-64; was one of the founders of the Union League club, New York cit}', in 1863, and was chairman of the Yosemite Park commission of California, 1864-66, where he directed the topographical survey of the reservation. He was engaged with Mr. Vaux in laying out and superintending the construc- tion of Prospect Park, Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1866, wliich contract was followed by similar work, among which were the Riverside and Morning- side parks and several parkways in Chicago, III.; tiie park and parkway of Buffalo, N.Y.; Seaside park at Bridgeport, Conn.; two parks in Roches- ter, N.Y.; one at Trenton, N.J.; another at Wil- mington, Del.; the great terrace and grounds of the capitol at Washington, D.C., and in 1871, the parking system of its broad streets. He also laid out Mount Royal park, Montreal, Canada, and the park and parkway system at Boston, Mass. F. L. & J. C. Olmsted, with Henrj' Sargent Codman, Avere the landscape architects of the World's Col- umbian exposition at Chicago, 111. He was con- sulting architect of the grounds of some of the larger universities and colleges of the United States and many notable private parks. He re- ceived the honorary degree of A.M. from Harvard in 1864, and from Amherst in 1867, and LL.D. from Harvard and Yale in 1893. He is the author of: Walks and Talks of an A7nc7'ican Farmer in England (1852); A Journey in the Sea-board Slave States, icith Remarks on their Economy (1856); A Journey through Texas, or a Saddle Trip on the Soidlncestern Frontier, tcith a Statis- tical Apx>endix (1857); A Journey in the Back Country (1860). and The Cotton Kingdom (2 vols., 1861). He died Aug. 28. 1003.

OLMSTED, John Charles, landscape architect, was born in Geneva. Switzerland, Sept. 14, 1852: son of Dr. John Hull and Mary Cleveland Bryant (Perkins) Olmsted. He returned with his parents to the United States in 1853. and was graduated from the Sheffield Scientific school, Yale university. Ph.B., l.'<75; then studied land- scape gardening under Frederick Law Olmsted and O. C. Bullard, and practiced his profession in partnership with the former. He was mar-