History

The National Park Service has a long tradition of consistently high standards and steadfast commitment to preserving historic and natural resources. However, because landscapes were not recognized as important cultural resources until the early 1990s, landscape preservation was overlooked. As a result, the condition of cultural landscapes at parks throughout much of the country declined steadily in the twentieth century.

By the early 1990s the maintenance backlog for National Park Service landscapes had become monumental. The potential loss of our nation's most significant historic landscapes inspired the establishment of the Olmsted Center for Landscape Preservation in 1992 to assist parks and historic properties with protecting and preserving their cultural landscapes.

Formal garden at Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park.

NPS Photo / OCLP

Initially, the Olmsted Center provided parks and historic properties with emergency technical assistance to stabilize and reverse the deterioration of cultural landscapes. As the condition of landscapes improved, the mission of the Olmsted Center evolved, making it one of the first programs in the National Park Service to assist parks with preparing cultural landscape reports to help park managers understand the history, integrity, and importance of their landscapes.

The Olmsted Center provides assistance to parks in plant records management, useful to maintenance staff, researchers, and visitors.

NPS Photo / OCLP

Working with partners such as the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, the Olmsted Center developed procedures for inventorying plants at historic properties and developing preservation maintenance plans to guide the stewardship of cultural landscapes. The Olmsted Center established other important partnerships with universities, like the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse, New York, and non-profit organizations, like Historic New England, to develop education and training programs for strengthening the knowledge, skill, and capacity of people caring for cultural landscapes.

As awareness of cultural landscapes by the National Park Service and the preservation community has increased, the Olmsted Center has cultivated opportunities to develop and pilot new concepts, techniques, and methodologies for preserving cultural landscapes. Working with public and private partners, the Olmsted Center has developed a full range of preservation programs and services in cultural landscape research, planning, stewardship, and education.

After more than two decades at the forefront of landscape preservation, the Olmsted Center has generated an extensive library of publications and reports on the study, preservation, and management of cultural landscapes. The Olmsted Center is committed to further development of collaborative partnerships that advance landscape preservation theory and practice and seek innovative solutions that preserve and improve the condition of our nation's cultural landscapes.

The Olmsted Center works with park staff to replant trees from the historic plant nursery in the Wick Orchard at Morristown National Historic Park.

NPS Photo / OCLP