When the most American of landscape designers, Frederick Law Olmsted, drew his plans for Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, he couldn’t have imagined it would double as a Paris park in a film version of an acclaimed literary work of his time.

But in October of 2018, Columbia Pictures used a portion of the Arboretum to film a scene for its take on Louisa May Alcott’s 1868 “Little Women.” 

This short film was produced for the Arboretum by Deborah Blackwell and her husband, Jeffrey Blackwell, with footage courtesy of Columbia Pictures.