Topographical Map of the Proposed South Park and lands adjacent thereto in the City of Buffalo and the Town of West Seneca

Plan #718-z1, Topographical Map of the Proposed South Park and lands adjacent thereto in the City of Buffalo and the Town of West Seneca (South Park Buffalo - FLO's Studies 1888 & 1889 [verso])

Olmsted NHS manages a collection of over 139,000 oversized documents in its Plans & Drawings collection, which is only a portion of its more than million archival items related to the firm’s history as parkmakers and landscape architects (Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. was instrumental in the drafting of the NPS’ Organic Act). For decades, thousands of researchers from across the country and around the world have visited the archives to study, preserve, protect and advocate for the historic landscapes designed by the firm. In an increasingly digital world, however, Olmsted NHS is expanding to a more online and on-demand process to make these materials even more available to a wider audience of users. This plan, #718-z1, “Topographical Map of the Proposed South Park and lands adjacent thereto in the City of Buffalo …” (January, 1888; July 1888) is a typical example of the collection, some as small as 3”x5” sketches while some extend to over twenty feet long. Encompassing blueprints, inks on draft cloth, pencils on trace paper, watercolors, color pencils and crayons, lithographs, transfer prints on mylar, this collection spans the life of the firm, roughly 1880-1980. Other landscape design records include the firm’s collection of project photo albums, latter-half 20th-century correspondence, business records and ephemera collections. The Olmsted firm’s Master List of projects and the park’s project-related records (as well as the Olmsted firm records located at the Library of Congress) can be searched at the web-based dataset, the Olmsted Research Guide Online (ORGO).