Frederick Law Olmsted perhaps did more to shape this country than any other American in our history. And shape we also mean in the literal and physical sense ... sculpting the landscape of the United States. A contemporary described his work this way ...
An artist, he paints with lakes and wooded slopes; with lawns and banks and forest covered hills; with mountain sides and ocean views.
Boston especially has been shaped by Olmsted's visionary painting. One of his last and most important projects was the Emerald Necklace, which he referred to as the Green Ribbon. The Necklace, as it's now known, is an interconnected park system stretching for 7 miles and over 1,100 acres throughout the city from bustling Boston Common downtown out to bucolic Franklin Park in Roxbury.
