Public parks : their effects upon the moral, physical and sanitary condition of the inhabitants of large cities : with special reference to the city of Chicago / by John H. Rauch.

  • Rauch, John H. (John Henry), 1828-1894.
Date:
1869
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Public parks : their effects upon the moral, physical and sanitary condition of the inhabitants of large cities : with special reference to the city of Chicago / by John H. Rauch. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    improvement was slowly and gradually increasing, and the evidence of the growing wealth and prosperity of our citizens manifested itself in the increase of elegant cottages and villa residences on the banks of our noble rivers, along our rich valleys, and wherever nature seems to invite by her rich and varied charms. This feeling or taste for improvement is contagious, and once fairly appreciated and established in one portion of the country, it soon became disseminated in other portions, until it has now become quite general.* The progress that landscape gardening has made during the last twenty-five years is truly astonishing, and to no one are we so much indebted as to the lamented Downing. The impress of his genius is visible everywhere, and monuments to his taste and skill are to be found throughout the entire land. On the Hudson are to be found some of the finest specimens of the art, and nowhere in the Union is it so far advanced. The environs of Boston are more highly cultivated than those of any other city in North America ; in fact, in certain directions the whole neighborhood may be considered a landscape garden. In the neighborhood of Baltimore are found a number of fine old places, several of them being as elaborate and magnificent as anv in the country. Others are to be found scattered throughout different States, even in sections comparatively new, showing conclusively that a taste for the beautiful in art and nature is fast being dissemi- nated among the people. It is only a few years since the establishment of rural cemeteries was commenced in the United States, owing to the crowded and confined state of our burial grounds within the large cities and their manifest injurious influence upon health. Such has been the progress of this movement, and its importance and necessity so apparent, that it has been almost universally adopted, and intramural interments, under any circumstances, in many of the cities are totally prohibited. As a legitimate result, arising from the growing taste for landscape gardening and the promptings of affection and respect for the memory of the sacred dead, we have in the United States the finest rural cemeteries in the world, which we think may be regarded as a sure evidence of our advancement in civilization and enlightenment.