Finding Frederick Law Olmsted in Cotton's Kingdom

In 1852, the New York Daily Times commissioned a thirty-year-old Frederick Law Olmsted to conduct an immersive research journey through the Southern slave states. This journey through the so-called Cotton Kingdom would become a centerpiece of his methods and legacy as a landscape architect and influence the landscapes across America that he shaped. As a Black woman born and raised in the South and a practitioner in the profession of landscape architecture that Olmsted founded, Sara Zewde follows Olmsted’s path in search of how his journey inspired in him the radical idea that public parks could redress society’s ills at the height of slavery in America and the implications for landscape architecture today.
Sara Zewde is the Founding Principal of Studio Zewde, a design firm practicing landscape architecture, urbanism, and public art. She also serves as Associate Professor in Practice of Landscape Architecture at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University.