South Park Then and Now
April 26, 2022, marks the 200th birthday of Frederick Law Olmsted, author, conservationist, social reformer, and America’s seminal landscape architect. Olmsted and his successors designed some of Chicago’s most beloved and important greenspaces including Jackson Park, Washington Park, Midway Plaisance, and the University of Chicago campus. The city joins more than 120 organizations across the United States that have come together to celebrate the bicentennial in a campaign called Olmsted 200: Parks for All People.
The Washington Park Camera Club, one of the Chicago area’s oldest camera clubs and predominantly composed of African American members from the city’s South Side, celebrates Olmsted’s iconic green spaces with an online photographic essay launching on his 200th birthday. The exhibition weaves together historic and contemporary images of Olmsted’s South Park: Jackson and Washington Parks and the Midway Plaisance. With recent photography by twelve members of the club, the project highlights the importance of Olmsted’s landscapes in the past as well as the vital role they play in the lives of Chicagoans today.
Presented in collaboration with the Hyde Park Historical Society as part of a yearlong celebration of Olmsted in Chicago consisting of this exhibition and a series of park tours this spring and summer.
Tours:
Midway Plaisance Walking Tours
Olmsted in Chicago is presented as part of Art Design Chicago Now, an initiative of the Terra Foundation for American Art that amplifies the voices of Chicago's diverse creatives, past and present, and explores the essential role they play in shaping the now. These Chicago programs are part of the nationwide Olmsted 200 celebration “Parks for All People.”
Additional Resources:
“The Olmsted Legacy in Chicago,” by Julia Bachrach
