Olmsted and the ‘veritable and eminent pirate’ Captain William Kidd: an unhistorical history

IF 0.1 3区艺术学 0 ARCHITECTURE

STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF GARDENS & DESIGNED LANDSCAPES Pub Date : 2022-10-02 DOI:10.1080/14601176.2022.2161190

E. Eigen

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Abstract

Abstract While Frederick Law Olmsted’s reputation rests almost as much on his authorship of studies including the Cotton Kingdom as it does for his work on landscapes including New York’s Central Park, a neglected file in the archival papers of Olmsted Associates, his sons’ design firm, suggests that it was Olmsted’s alleged role in a fabulous pirate story that truly captured the attention and imagination of the general public, along with that of business historians and other specialists. This paper examines the reception history of A Notable Lawsuit (1898), which purports to tell the tale of how the Astor family stole a fortune from the Olmsted family in the form of the ‘veritable’ pirate Captain William Kidd’s buried treasure. The designation of his pirate stories as ‘veritable’ is but the first clue that must be deciphered in weighing the documentary evidence incorporated into and dissimulated by Head’s text. The perils and the pleasures of treating A Notable Lawsuit as a test case in establishing the credibility of historical fact and fiction—as defined by authors such as Herman Melville and Thomas Carlyle—is the survival of the file preserving the range and kind of perplexities faced by readers of the tale.

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奥姆斯特德和“真正杰出的海盗”威廉·基德船长:一段非历史的历史

弗雷德里克·劳·奥姆斯特德(Frederick Law Olmsted)的名声不仅来自他对纽约中央公园(Central Park)等景观的研究，也来自他对棉花王国(Cotton Kingdom)的研究。但在他儿子的设计公司奥姆斯特德联合公司(Olmsted Associates)的档案文件中，有一份被忽视的文件表明，奥姆斯特德在一个神话般的海盗故事中所扮演的角色，真正吸引了公众、商业历史学家和其他专家的注意和想象。本文考察了1898年出版的《一桩引人注目的诉讼》的接受历史，该小说旨在讲述阿斯特家族如何以“真正的”海盗船长威廉·基德的宝藏的形式从奥姆斯特德家族窃取财富的故事。他的海盗故事被称为“真实的”，这只是在权衡海德的文本中包含和掩盖的书面证据时必须破译的第一个线索。在确立历史事实和虚构(如赫尔曼·梅尔维尔(Herman Melville)和托马斯·卡莱尔(Thomas carlyle)等作家所定义的)的可信度时，将《著名的诉讼》作为一个测试案例来对待，其风险和乐趣在于，档案的存续，保留了故事读者所面临的范围和各种困惑。

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来源期刊

STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF GARDENS & DESIGNED LANDSCAPES ARCHITECTURE-

CiteScore

0.20

自引率

0.00%

发文量

期刊介绍： Studies in the History of Gardens & Designed Landscapes addresses itself to readers with a serious interest in the subject, and is now established as the main place in which to publish scholarly work on all aspects of garden history. The journal"s main emphasis is on detailed and documentary analysis of specific sites in all parts of the world, with focus on both design and reception. The journal is also specifically interested in garden and landscape history as part of wider contexts such as social and cultural history and geography, aesthetics, technology, (most obviously horticulture), presentation and conservation.