Boston's Arnold Arboretum: A Place for Study and Recreation (Teaching with Historic Places)

Visitors to the arboretum. (Francis Loeb Library, Graduate School of Design, Harvard University)

This lesson is part of the National Park Service’s Teaching with Historic Places (TwHP) program.


By the mid-to-late 19th century, the crushing density of increasingly crowded cities led to the view that parks and public gardens could serve as antidotes to the urban environment. Renowned landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted believed that visiting oases of green space could help ease the pressures of urban life for both the poor and the rich.

In Boston, Olmsted designed a series of parks linked by parkways collectively known as the "Emerald Necklace."The Arnold Arboretum, one of the "jewels" of Boston's Emerald Necklace, has served as a tranquil haven since it opened to the public in the 1880s. Use this lesson plan to learn more about the arboretum and environmental conservation. (Click on the photo to explore the full lesson plan.)

Essential Question

Discover how the first arboretum in the United States became part of the burgeoning urban park movement in the second half of the 19th century.

Objective

1. To consider how 19th-century urban conditions influenced the development and design of parks;
2. To examine the history of the Arnold Arboretum and its role in the Boston park system;
3. To gain a better understanding of Frederick Law Olmsted and Charles Sprague Sargent, the two men responsible for the Arnold Arboretum;
4. To conduct research about the history of planned parks in their own community.

Background

Time Period: Late 19th century
Topics: The lesson can be used in teaching units on late 19th-century urban expansion, especially as influenced by immigration and the Industrial Revolution. It also could form the core of an interdisciplinary unit when used in conjunction with lessons on the Romantic and Transcendentalist movements and lessons on botany.

Full Lesson Plan