LARCH 060
American Parks Movement

1. For what reason could Mt. Auburn Cemetery be called the "American equivalent of Richmond Park"?

	Something about a rural cemetary, both foreshadowed public demands.

2. What did the photographs of Jacob Riis have to do with the American Park movement?

	He took pictures of poor people who could only find solace in nature in rural cemetaries.

3. What style of landscape design was influential to the Rural Cemetery movement?

	The English Landscape School

4. What was the cause of the beginning of the Rural Cemetery movement in Europe?

	(France) Rousseau 'got the ball rolling'.  He died as a dissident to the Church and was buried in a friend's English Landscape garden.  Two more were added.

	(France) French Revolution, massive amounts of bodies caused burial shortages.  New cemetary system: take the dead out into the country to be put in a landscape that would facilite mourning and such.  The style of the English Landscape School was used.

5. What kind of reception did Mt. Auburn get from the public? How did it impact the American Park Movement?

	(near Boston) Same urban graveyard problem as France due to massive expansion of population.  It was seen as suspiciously impractical.  They hated anything pleasurable.  They eventually warmed up to it after it stopped being part experimental horticulture and went full cemetary.

	Pleasure destinations like Mt. Auburn led to public parks.

6. Name at least four basic characteristics of the rural cemetery.

	I. Abundant trees and flowers
	II. Lots of paths (73 in 10 years)
	III. Carriage rows named after the present flora
	IV. Variety of scenery and maze-like paths (they were given maps)
	V. Water fountains & ponds
	VI. A viewing tower (logical conclusion of viewing hills)

7. Over and above designing landscapes, what was Andrew Jackson Downing’s mission in life?

	To elevate American tastes by immersing them in the restorative power of nature.  Also to refine rednecks.

8. Why did Downing want the New York Park Act to be amended?

	It allotted 160 acres of land and they wanted more.  They had a bigger and better spot in mind, and it is now Central Park (~800 acres).

9. The NY Park Act is a very significant piece of legislation. Why?

	It was basically the birth of the American Parks Movement.