News
Fairsted comes alive with Art in the Park
On July 23, the Friends of Fairsted and the National Park Service hosted a full day of free activities. We began and ended the day with musical performances by Vanessa Trien and the Jumping Monkeys and Juventas New Music Ensemble and throughout the day children and their adults made sun prints and watercolor paintings – applied arts practiced by the many landscape architects and employees who worked in the Olmsted firms at Fairsted.
The South Lawn of Fairsted came alive in the morning when nearly 100 visitors, most of them children, sang and danced with Vanessa Trien and the Jumping Monkeys! For many families, this was their first visit to Fairsted and many will return for family fun in the future.
The afternoon performance of new chamber music featured a program of beautiful, contemporary chamber music inspired by American landscapes. The concert included works by composers Gwyneth Walker, inspired by the Vermont countryside; Oliver Caplan, inspired by the Mystic River; Stacy Garrop, inspired by the lighthouses of Narragansett Bay; Nell Shaw Cohen, inspired by the Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail in California; and Christina Rusnak, inspired by Portland’s Forest Park, an Olmsted design.
Announcing the 2023 Charles E. Beveridge Fellow
Loic Massias, Paris, France
The Reception of Frederick Law Olmsted’s Park Systems in France, 1880-1945. An analysis of the impact of Olmsted in France and the reciprocal contributions of French landscape architects to Olmsted’s work.
Board of Directors Annual Meeting
The Friends of Fairsted Board of Directors held its annual meeting on the grounds of the Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site in Brookline on June 20, 2023. We were joined by NPS staff and graphic designer Florrie Everett, and the meeting spanned both business items and social connections. We bid a grateful farewell to our departing members Alan S. Banks, Alison Bassett, Jay Olmsted, Madeline Webster, and Kyle Zick, and thanked them for their years of service. We also were happy to welcome our newest Directors, Akea Cader, Kristen Dahlmann, Steven R. Pendery, Ian Scherling, Emily Vance, and Ann Whiteside. Together, our new cohort of Directors bring fresh perspectives from the areas of archaeology, landscape history, education, landscape architectural practice, and library sciences and information resources.
NEWS FROM THE OLMSTED ARCHIVES
The team of archivists at the Olmsted National Historic Site is constantly uploading newly-digitized images to its Flickr page, for example, this plan related to Dr. Schentag’s work: Plan #7378-15-pt1, “Mr. George Widener Chestnut Hill, Pa. Sketch for Garden Gate” (Feb. 9, 1925) looks at the design for a garden gate element of the extensive formal garden at Erdenheim Farm, the Chestnut Hill, Pennsylvania gentleman’s farm of George Widener, Jr. As of June 2009, the property has been preserved in a complex preservation arrangement, largely due to the efforts of, among others, the Natural Land Trust, The Whitemarsh Foundation and the family-owners involved. According to the Foundation’s website, “Legally binding easements and covenants protect the Farm from all but the most limited development, in perpetuity.” More of the Widener farm plans (and photos!) can be seen here.
IMAGE: Plan #7378-15-pt1, “Mr. George Widener Chestnut Hill, Pa. Sketch for Garden Gate” (February 9, 1925).