“Our Better Nature” Exhibition Official Opening

Celebrating 150 Years of Olmsted in Buffalo & America’s First Urban Park System, curated by Lauren Becker, FLAT HAT EXHIBITS

OPENING DATE: Wednesday, September 26, 2018

PLACE: The Buffalo History Museum, Community Gallery, One Museum Court, Buffalo, NY 14216. Free parking available in the museum’s parking lot and on Nottingham Terrace

TIME: 6:00 p.m – 8:00 p.m. Our executive director, Stephanie Crockatt, will share a welcome message at 6:15 p.m.

NOTE: Museum entry fees apply

Light refreshments will be provided at this opening reception.

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Our Better Nature will be at The Buffalo History Museum Community Gallery through January 2019.

About Our Better Nature

Frederick Law Olmsted.

For those who recognize the name, it usually calls to mind images of New York City’s Central Park, or maybe Chicago’s World’s Columbian Exposition, or perhaps the Biltmore Estate in the mountains of North Carolina. At the very least, we associate Olmsted with beautiful parks, but why does that matter? What makes him and his parks so special?

If we learn more, we are shocked to discover Olmsted parks are completely artificial. The meadows, the lakes, the groves of trees— they are real, but not original. Olmsted put them there by design. But why? Why set aside valuable city land only to plant trees and damn streams for the pleasure of a shaded path or a tranquil pond?

If we learn even more, we know Olmsted practically invented the profession of landscape architecture, but how? More importantly, why? Where did his ideas come from? Why was he so good at it? Why does Buffalo have so many Olmsted parks, and why should we do everything we can to protect and preserve them?

The answers begin when we discover Olmsted’s story before he became the great park-maker. The more we learn about what inspired Olmsted, the more he inspires us and brings out Our Better Nature.

Our Better Nature will be at The Buffalo History Museum Community Gallery through January 2019.

Click here to learn more about Our Better Nature.