Nov 15th 2018

In the late 1860s, when acclaimed landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted Sr. visited the site chosen for Chicago’s Jackson Park, he did not consider it promising. Indeed, he would later write that “if a search had been made for the least parklike ground within miles of the city, nothing better meeting that requirement would have been found.”

Yet, despite his private feelings, Olmsted managed to create three magnificent sets of plans for Jackson Park: the original 1871 layout for 1055-acre South Park, the scheme for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, and plans for transforming the fairgrounds back into parkland. In this lecture, historian Julia Bachrach will discuss the early development of Jackson Park, exploring the ways in which natural features, recreational needs and expectations, Olmsted’s social philosophy, and collaborations with designers such as architect Daniel H. Burnham shaped Jackson Park during the late nineteenth century.

This event, funded by a grant from the Terra Foundation for American Art, is part of our programming in connection with the exhibition Pictures from an Exposition: Visualizing the 1893 World’s Fair. See it from September 28 to December 31, 2018, at the Newberry.

For more information, and to register, please visit: https://www.newberry.org/11152018-white-city-green-haven-jackson-parks-late-19th-century-transformations

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