University of North Carolina at Asheville
D.H. Ramsey Library
Special Collections/University Archives


Frederick E. Olmsted
(1872 – 1925)
Biography Fredrick E. Olmsted was born on November 8, 1872 in Hartford Connecticut. He should not be confused with his more famous relative, Frederick Law Olmsted. He graduated from Yale University and thereafter joined the U.S. Geological Survey in North Carolina. He met Gifford Pinchot  while working with the survey and became inspired to work in forestry. He first studied forestry at the Biltmore Forest School and Schenck and then went to Germany and studied under Dietrich Brandis, receiving his diploma from the University of Munich in 1899. He returned to the US where he first worked in the Bureau of Forestry developing plans for timberland owners and directing boundary surveys on forest reserves in the West. With the establishment of the United States Forest Service Olmsted became chief inspector of the field service and later worked specifically in this department in California. He resigned from the USFS in 1911 and became a consulting forester with the firm of Fisher and Bryant in Boston. In 1914 he moved back to California where he established the Tamalpais Fire Protective Association in Marin County and five years later became the President of the Society of American Foresters where he advocated for federal regulation over private cutting. He died on February 19, 1925 and made contributions to both public and private forestry.
Subjects Olmsted, Frederick E.
United States Forest Service
Forests and Forestry --- United States
Forestry and Community
Forestry Extension North Carolina
Forestry Extension Southern States
Forestry Industry
Forestry Innovations
Forestry Schools and Education
Forestry Schools and Education --- North Carolina
United States Department of the Interior

Bibliography

Munns, E. N. and Brown R. M. Volume Tables for the Important Timber Trees of the United States. USDA - Government Printing Office, 1925. 
{Part II - Eastern Conifers has two 1907 tables for loblolly pine in Arkansas by F. E. Olmsted.  This is likely the same person who took photographs in Scott County, TN in 1901.}

Darmstadt Germany. The Biltmore Immortals (Volumes I). Printed by L. C. Wittich, 1953 and 1957.  
{Item found at Pack Library and the NCSU Special Collection}  
{page 143 has a write up on F. E. Olmsted}

Hosmer, Ralph S. The Society of American Foresters: An Historical Summary. Journal of Forestry, October 1960.       
{pgs 769 and 780 include references to F. E. Olmsted}  
{Olmsted was president of SAF in 1919, when W. W. Ashe was vice-president.  He was president during a tumultuous period, and appointed the Committee for the Application of Forestry which set the stage for forestry legislation such as the Clarke-McNary Act.}

Steen, Harold K. The U. S. Forest Service: A History. University of Washington Press, 1976 [1991].  
{pages 64, 77, 82, and 178 have information about Frederick Erskine Olmsted.}

Rakestraw, Lawrence. Frederick Erskine Olmsted. Encyclopedia of American Forest and Conservation History   Macmillan Publishing Company, 1983.  
{biography on page 507} 
{in an encyclopedia edited by Richard C. Davis}
Citation  U.S. Forest Service Southern Research Station Collection, D.H. Ramsey Library, Special Collections, University of North Carolina at Asheville 28804
Processed by Special Collections staff - Erica Ojermark