To mark Central Park's 150th anniversary, this is a history of America's first urban park, a masterpiece of 19th-century landscape design. Sara Cedar Miller, official historian and photographer for the Central Park Conservancy, draws on extensive research to tell the story of the park's creation, placing it in the context of 19th-century American art and social history and illuminating the roles of its designers Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux and their associate Jacob Wrey Mould. Period photographs, plans and drawings combine with an authoritative text and contemporary photographs, which show the restored park's glory.