Olmsted & Yosemite

Olmsted & Yosemite: Civil War & National Parks

HyFlex Lecture
Friday, March 3, 2023
11:00 AM – 1:00 PM
This event is free and open to the public; registration is required.

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During the turbulent decade the United States engaged in a civil war, abolished slavery,
and remade the government, the public park emerged as a product of these dramatic
changes. New York’s Central Park and Yosemite in California both embodied the “new
birth of freedom” that had inspired the Union during its greatest crisis, epitomizing
the duty of republican government to enhance the lives and well-being of all its citizens.
A central thread connecting abolition, the Civil War, and the dawn of urban and national
parks is the life of Frederick Law Olmsted. In 1864, Olmsted was asked to prepare
a plan for a park in Yosemite Valley, created by Congress to expand the privileges
of …