Alan Banks of the National Park Service will be at the Massachusetts Horticultural Society on Thursday, February 26, from 7 – 8:30, to present on the firm Frederick Law Olmsted founded over a century ago which was involved in over 1,200 landscape architecture projects throughout Massachusetts, ranging from expansive 500-acre public parks to intimate private gardens. One of its greatest achievements is a six-mile “emerald necklace” of ponds, parks, and parkways that winds its way through Boston. This one-hour slide lecture will sample this rich landscape legacy and explore the ideas that shaped some of the most treasured lands in Massachusetts – including the work of the firm for the Baltzell family at Elm Bank.

Alan S. Banks oversees the historical interpretation of Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site in Brookline, Massachusetts. During the last 23 years he has researched and developed a variety of landscape walking tours, slide lectures and presentations on the Olmsteds and their work across the country. In 2010, he was an invited speaker at the Appalachian Institute at Biltmore Estate in North Carolina and later that year he traveled to Milwaukee to speak on Olmsted-designed, Lake Park. Last year he was the keynote speaker at the regional meeting of the American Society of Landscape Architects in Atlanta. He also recently was seen on Olmsted and America’s Urban Parks, a documentary screened on PBS across the country featuring Kevin Kline and Kerry Washington.

Lecture Fee: Mass Hort Members $10, Non-Members $15. The lecture will take place in the Parkman Room of the Elm Bank Education Building, Washington Street in Wellesley. Register online at http://www.masshort.org/eventdetail/140/422|427|430|433/frederick-law-olmsted-the-massachusetts-legacy?filter_reset=1.