| Affiliation | National park service | Manuscript division, library of congress | College of Environmental Design, University of California, Berkeley | School of Design, University of Pennsylvania | - | The cultural landscape foundation | Society of architectural historians |
| Background | Growing vitality of landscape history, preservation and management | Digitalized to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Olmsted’s birth in 2022 | Founded as a teaching collection, following the recommendation of eminent architectural historian Henry Russell Hitchcock | Louis I. Kahn Collection, purchased by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, placed on permanent loan to the university | Different backgrounds of each collection, such as being gifted, risk of material damage, a result of institutional projects | A non-profit foundation established to connect people to places | Organized by the SAH and the University of Virginia Press and supported from the various foundations, institutions, and individuals |
| Establisment year | 2000 | 1947(collection) 2018(online) | 1953 1973(landscape collection added) | 1978 | Different periods | 1998 | 2010 2013(landscape collection added) |
| Mission | To record historic landscapes in the United States and its territories | To serve as a resource for the bicentennial celebration of Olmsted’s birth in 2022 | To raise awareness of the architectural, landscape, and design heritage of Northern California and beyond | For independent study as well as to support teaching at the university | To support research and learning internationally and make publicly available | To educate and engage the public to make the shared landscape heritage more visible, identify its value, and empower its stewards | To demonstrate the richness and diversity of architecture and building practice across many centuries in the US |
| Scope and subject | Endangered historic landscapes about 40 places, over 1,000 items | Materials on both Olmsted’s private and professional life from 1777 to 1952 | Design works of more than 200 individuals and firms in the region. materials on landscape architects, ASLA, and California Association of Landscape Architects. additional collections of online exhibitions, virtual collections, and journey to the Sea Ranch collections | Works of more than 400 designers from the 17th century to the present 12 landscape architecture collections | Diverse scope and materials from papers to films, from America to the East Asia, and from ancient times to the present. different according to each collection | What’s Out There: more than 2,000 places. Pioneers of American landscape design: biographical profiles, videotaped and transcribed oral histories, tours, and print publications about 1,000 people. Landslide: more than 200 endangered places | Histories, photographs, and maps for over 20,000 structures and places, 1,113 architects, 4,240 firms, and 7 groups in the US |
| Acquisition | Documenting historic landscapes through measured and interpretive drawings, written histories, and large-format photographs | Gifted from Olmsted’s family and a biographer, purchased and transferred | Donation, charitable contribution | Donation, charitable contribution | Gifted, formed under the direction of the institution program, reproduced from the collections | Through the ongoing development of its core programs | Drawn from the book series, buildings of the United States |
| Arrangement | Arranged by each landscape | 8 series(Journals, 1777-1888; Correspondence, 1838-1928; Subject File, 1857-1952; Speeches and Writings File, 1839-1903; Miscellany, 1837-1952; 1975 Addition, 1821-1924; 1996 Addition, 1880-1881; Oversize, 1886) | First arrangement: individual designers and firms. second arrangement: according to the types of materials | Designer collections arranged by names. digital resources with each web page | Different arrangements according to each collection. people, material types, or etc. | What’s out there: Arranged by places. Pioneers of American Landscape Design: by individuals. Landslide: by atrisk, saved, or lost landscapes | 6 categories of address, architect, material, type, state, and style, using terms from the AAT to categorize and classify metadata |
| Use | Browse by names, subjects, and geographic | Browse by date, location, contributor, or subject. Provided with a finding aid | Provided with project indexes | Supporting academic events and exhibitions | Source for academic programs and events | Browse by keyword, type, style, region, and city. developed as cultural landscapes guides. Basement for on-offline exhibitions provided with glossary of 27 types and 16 styles | Open access |
| Etc | Established as a national program in 2010. A collaborative project | Mostly available online. Developed as resources for teachers and experts | Access to the archive by appointment only. Operated by a team | Access to the archive by appointment only. Operated by a team | Partially full digital access or available to registered users | - | A collaborative project. Fund-raising campaign, “Future of the Past” |