The Belmont Historical Society Presents “Frederick Law Olmsted, Passages in the Life of an Unpractical Man,” a one-man play by Gerry Wright. on Wednesday, April 15, 2015, at 7:30 p.m. in the Assembly Room of the Belmont Public Library.

Free and open to the public; refreshments will be served

Frederick Law Olmsted (1822–1903) had a multi-faceted career as a journalist and critic of slavery; as an appointee of Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War; and as the landscape architect for Boston’s Emerald Necklace, New York City’s Central Park, and the U.S. Capitol grounds and his final work, the grounds of McLean Hospital in Belmont, among many other treasures. Olmstead was a key pioneer in the movement to preserve land as national parkland, both at Yosemite and Niagara Falls. His life story from “vagabond” to dry goods salesman, farmer, traveler, journalist, author, publisher, executive, and finally to becoming the “father” of landscape architecture in America is an inspiring historical tale.