The Olmsted Elm came down in March 2011 due to age and instability. The opening essays introduce the Olmsted Elm from the perspective of several who knew it well. Lasting personal and professional impacts of this important tree are conveyed in these first-hand accounts. The essays that follow are the RISD students’ written components of their Witness Tree Project assignments. Their ideas, crafted in text and wood, express their understandings and interpretations of the three studied topics.
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Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site
Article 1: Echoes of the Olmsted Elm Alan Banks Essay
Alan Banks, Supervisory Park Ranger at Frederick Law Olmsted NHS, reflects on his view of the Olmsted Elm from his arrival at the site in 1990 till its loss in 2011. Read more
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Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site
Article 2: Echoes of the Olmsted Elm Charlie Pepper Essay
Charlie Pepper, Senior Project Manager, Preservation Maintenance & Education, Olmsted Center for Landscape Preservation, reflects on his twenty five years of stewardship for the Olmsted Elm in his NPS career. Read more
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Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site
Article 3: Echoes of the Olmsted Elm Lauren Meier Essay
Lauren G. Meier, of the American Society of Landscape Architects and Friends of Fairsted, reflects on the significance and loss of the Olmsted Elm. Read more
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Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site
Article 4: Echoes of the Olmsted Elm Dale Broholm Essay
Dale Broholm, Senior Critic in the Department of Furniture Design, Rhode Island School of Design, reflects on the work with the Olmsted Elm material and visiting the Fairsted grounds as part of the Witness Tree Project. Read more
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Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site
Article 5: Echoes of the Olmsted Elm Daniel Cavicchi Essay
Daniel Cavicchi, Associate Professor of American Studies and Head of the Department of History at the Rhode Island School of Design, describes the impact of the Witness Tree seminar. Read more
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Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site
Article 6: Echoes of the Olmsted Elm Assignment One
Eight students from the Rhode Island School of Design used material from the Olmsted Elm to address the prompt: Frederick Law Olmsted was a man of many interests and occupations. Some more successful than others. Choose one of these occupations and make an object that you think Olmsted would have wanted to have with him during the practice of the chosen occupation. Read more
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Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site
Article 7: Echoes of the Olmsted Elm Assignment Two
Seven students from the Rhode Island School of Design used material from the Olmsted Elm to address the prompt: Leisure activities, play, relaxation in public spaces have changed in many ways during the past century. Identify a period of time in America’s past, staring with the 1850s, and create an object that reflects a form of leisure, play, recreation, etc. that would have been popular and recognizable during the selected time period. Read more
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Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site
Article 8: Echoes of the Olmsted Elm Assignment Three
Five students from the Rhode Island School of Design used material from the Olmsted Elm to address the prompt: The demands of public spaces in a democratic society have been fraught with turmoil since our country’s founding. Public usage of public spaces does not always conform to the expectations of society nor necessarily adhere to the laws of a given time. Pick a period and explore this issue through an object. Read more