Olmsted, Frederick Law (1822-1903), was an American landscape architect, city planner, and writer on social issues. Olmsted's career was shaped by his idea of a civilized society. Through his landscape designs and writings, he tried to recast the form of America's cities and suburbs, and to promote the refinement and culture he thought the citizens of a republic could attain. He criticized the slaveholding South because he believed the region lacked the social and cultural institutions that would raise the level of civilization there.