In honor of the 200th birthday of perhaps the most revered figure in the history of American landscape architecture, The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF) has produced a wonderfully illustrated digital guide to more than 300 of Frederick Law Olmsted’s landscape designs.

Featuring landscapes from Maine, Massachusetts, Illinois, Canada, his home state of Connecticut, and 26 others, the guide offers a mapping system and database with important biographical information about his myriad employees and even more detail about the outsized impacts of his successor firms. 

The 20th in the TCLF’s series of “What’s Out There” guides, this edition gives equal weight to the 30 National Historic Sites and hundreds of other lesser-known designs associated with Olmsted, including Vermont’s Shelburne Farms and Prospect Park in Brooklyn, which he long held to be his masterpiece. Each entry comes with a detailed, 250-word description and information about the site’s topology, style, design team, and related landscapes. 

The TCLF’s president and CEO Charles A. Birnbaum is currently finishing up a companion illustrated guide for Timber Press co-authored by Arleyn Levee, and Dena Tasse-Winter and titled Experiencing Olmsted - The Enduring Legacy of Frederick Law Olmsted's North American Landscapes. In a statement, he promised that both the online guide and book will include a thorough examination of Olmsted's legacy, with stories from early Olmsted clients and collaborators such as William Lyman Phillips and Warren H Manning to add to the tons of visual and historical information contained within. 

“The impact of Frederick Law Olmsted, Sr., on the nation’s identity and the profession of landscape architecture is inestimable,” he said. The guide is available online beginning on April 26th. What’s Out There Olmsted was made possible by the National Endowment for the Arts and Educational Partners Olmsted 200 and the American Society of Landscape Architects.