Biographical Sketch

Arthur A. Shurcliff (1870-1957) was born Arthur Asahel Shurtleff in Boston, Massachusetts. In 1930 he changed his name to Shurcliff to conform to the old English spelling. He began his career in 1894 with an engineering degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In the course of his studies, he met the aging Frederick Law Olmsted (1822-1903), with whom he developed a warm friendship and whose advice prompted him to undertake two years of graduate work in landscape architecture at Harvard College. Upon the completion of his graduate studies, in 1896, he was employed by Olmsted, and three years later, the pair co-founded the first four-year course in landscape architecture at Harvard College.

Upon Olmsted's death in 1903, Shurcliff completed much of the work left outstanding and, in 1905, opened his own offices, carrying on Olmsted's work in the planning and development of Metropolitan Boston. He became an active member of the Metropolitan Planning Board, the Metropolitan District Commission, the Boston Parks Commission, and the Boston Planning Board. He was in charge of developing the landscaping for Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia; developed the plans for the Plymouth Rock Shrine at Plymouth, Massachusetts; and was a consultant for the development of Old Sturbridge Village, Massachusetts, a reconstructed Federalist-period New England town. In addition, he was a consultant to many private individuals, including Albert Cheney Wells, J. G. Deering, and Nelson Rockefeller.