Launching April 26, 2022, the 200th birthday of Frederick Law Olmsted, Sr., Olmsted in Chicago is a series of free programs in Chicago celebrating the landscape architect and his core belief that parks are democratic spaces for all people. Olmsted was the founder of American landscape architecture and designer of such iconic greenspaces as New York’s Central Park and the National Capitol Grounds in Washington DC. He created Chicago’s 1871 South Park (now Jackson, Washington Parks and Midway Plaisance) and two decades later, transformed much of that site into the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition fairgrounds.

The Hyde Park Historical Society (HPHS) and Washington Park Camera Club (WPCC) have come together to sponsor Olmsted in Chicago. One of Chicagoland’s oldest camera clubs, the WPCC is predominantly composed of African American members. 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 program are part of the nationwide Olmsted 200 celebration “Parks for All People.”

The celebration begins on April 26, 2022 with South Park Then and Now, an on-line photo exhibit created by the WPCC. The free series of public programs includes summer walking tours led by park historian Julia Bachrach and a fall virtual program about the past, present, and future of Olmsted’s parks in Chicago.