Report to the President of the United States on Improvements and Policy of Maintenance for the Executive Mansion Grounds
Brookline, Massachusetts: Olmsted Brothers, (1935). Original document. Hardcover. Quarto. [6] 81 leaves, 14 plates (7 folded), plus 55 plates with 50 descriptive leaves. Bound in three-quarter green leather with decorative gilt ruling over marbled boards, gilt tooling, ruling and lettering on sunned spine; raised bands. Top edge green. Marbled endpapers. Housed in green buckram slipcase. The plates are rendered in offset, respectively offset lithography.
When the Olmsted firm submitted their now famous plans for the White House grounds in 1935 they produced only five copies issued in a three-ring binder for the report, with an additional album of original photographs (The White House History Quarterly, Spring 2022, Number 65). Three copies are listed in libraries: Library of Congress, the US Department of the Interior, and the University of Maryland, without any digital copies noted (OCLC). However, a digital scan of the text of the report does exist at the White House Archives. It is conceivable that our copy was produced at the Olmsted offices for and presented to J. B. West during his tenure at the White House (1957-1969), considering that the copy at the White House Archives contains punch holes. There are no OCLC records or online evidence that other copies exist.
For the execution of the project Olmsted employed the landscape architect Moreley Jeffers Williams, a landscape architect and professor in Harvard University's landscape architecture program... and when Olmsted suffered a near-death rupture of the appendix during the summer of 1934, Henry V. Hubbard, a partner in the Olmsted Brothers firm, also a professor of landscape architecture at Harvard University, stepped in to aid with the physical demands and complicated compensation negotiations involved in the White House work, and Hans J. Koehler, a horticultural specialist from the Olmsted firm, had visited the Grounds for consultation on planting plans, and by October 9, 1934, Olmsted delivered a thirteen-page "preliminary report... The final version..., was presented in October 1935." (White House History Quarterly as above).
Binding with very light wear along edges and spine sunned. Slipcase with light wear along edges. Very good- to fine condition. Item #55720
Provenance: From J. B. West to Clark Dobson & John Horner. West served as the White House Chief Usher from 1957-1969. Dobson and Horner were personal friends of West's. Horner was an Army Major attached to the White House Military Office (WHMO) during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations.
Price: $3,500.00