“Lives of women and children too poor to be sent to the country can now be saved in thousands of instances by making them go to the Park, During a hot day in July last, I counted at one in the park eighteen separate groups, consisting of mothers with their children, most of whom were under school age, taking picnic dinners which they brought from home. The practice is increasing under medical advice, especially when summer complaint is rife.”
See Frederick Law Olmsted’s Civilizing American Cities: Writings on City Landscapes, Chapter 2: Expanding Cities: Random versus Organized Growth” section is “Public Parks and the Enlargement of Towns.” Ed. S. B. Sutton. New York: Da Capo Press, 1997 also, MIT Press 1971
Featured Image: Lunching under the trees by the lake, May Day party, Central Park, New York (1907c.). LOC