Olmsted was the model of a respected establishment figure. He
distinguished himself by his intellectual attainments as well as
by his administrative and organizational ability. His books on
the pre-Civil War South brought him early and lasting
prominence. His leadership during the war, as executive
secretary of the U.S. Sanitary Commission (predecessor of the
Red Cross), together with his struggles with the Tammany mob
over the management of Central Park, established him as a man of
affairs. His success as a founding figure in landscape
architecture gave him enormous professional stature. And, not
least, his comfortable background and social standing gave him
easy access to the rich and powerful. Although Olmsted is
associated with the national parks principally as a creator of
ideas, he was plainly an effective shaper of events as well. He
was responsible for the organization and direction of the long
and difficult campaign for the establishment of a park around
Niagara Falls. As early as 1869 he began meeti