Downing, Andrew Jackson

Andrew Jackson (1815-1852), the first prominent landscape gardener of America. A native of New York. In 1841 his treatise on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening appeared, a book of wide influence. In 1845 Fruits and Fruit Trees of North America was issued. He founded the Horticulturist at Albany in 1846. In 1851 he visited Europe. On his return he was employed to lay out the public grounds at Washington. On his way from Albany to New York City he lost his life in a steamboat race on the Hudson. Downing's influence is especially valuable on the side of simple, natural grounds. Indirectly he is said to have influenced Frederick Law Olmsted who planned Central Park of New York City.