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acsm bulletin
Dear Editor,
I would like to offer my response
to the article in the ACSM
BULLETIN no. 253 (October 2011)
entitled, “When Surveyors Were
Revolting: A Brief Study of Four
Revolutionists”. In several parts
of the article Mr. N.W.J. Hazelton
relates to the problem that has
had an impact on land surveying
for many years. That is the failure
of the surveying community to
educate the public about the
importance of land surveying.
Mr. Hazelton goes on to say that
the shortage of surveyors may
have led to calls to lower the
standards for licensing and he
believes that we have not done a very good job of
explaining what surveying really is to their clients or
acquaintances.
Educating the public, especially young people, is
one of the main goals of the National Museum of
Surveying located in Springfield, Illinois. Through
dynamic stories, murals, and original surveying
equipment, visitors learn the role surveying has played
in developing America. Yes, we use the surveying
careers of Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln to get
people in the door and then tell them about other
famous Americans who were surveyors, such as
Benjamin Banneker, Andrew Ellicott, David Thompson,
David Rittenhouse, Thomas Hutchins, John Charles
Freemont, Charles Mason, Jeremiah Dixon and others.
In order to support our educational efforts we
need stories and articles about famous surveyors
and interesting surveys that happened in all parts
of America. Please look at the National Museum of
Surveying’s web site at www.surveyingmuseum.org.
We need everyone’s support.
Robert E. Church, Trustee
National Museum of Surveying
| acsm bulletin | december 2011
Dear Editor and Surveyors around the world,
I’m grateful for the opportunity to further the discourse on
the preservation of the history of surveying while working
to find ways to ensure the future of surveying. Therefore, I
would like to answer some of the questions raised in the
thought-provoking article “When Surveyors Were Revolting”
by N.W.J Hazelton featured in the October 2011 issue of
ACSM Bulletin. The answer to the problem he highlights
is—well, can be—the National Museum of Surveying.
Why, you may ask?
I’m 24. I’m the Assistant Director of the National
Museum of Surveying, and I’m asked every day if I’m a
surveyor. I tell them nope, and until I came to work for the
Museum, I knew nothing about surveying. I was a recent
college graduate who happened to walk by the Museum a
week after it had opened. I was curious. Why would there
be a museum for such an “esoteric” profession?
I left impressed by the history of surveying and
enamored by the future of surveying. The Museum
showed me the importance of surveying in the development of America. You can tell American history and
where we will go in the future through the eyes of a
surveyor. I wanted to tell that story so I started volunteering, and now, I’m the only employee.
My life’s mission is to make this Museum work
because I believe in our mission to preserve the legacy
of surveying while ensuring its future. The Museum
pays homage to surveyors around the nation. We
commemorate surveyors and surveying history. Further, we have been fighting like a surveyor through the
brier-patches to get surveyors around the nation to add
to the history of surveying. We have an open call for
surveying stories and key artifacts. I’m in the process
of writing a book, and we are drawing up plans for a
Surveyors Hall of Fame.
I’ve done a lot of research into surveying in Australia,
and the way Australia has commemorated its history.
That said, America is just as rich in surveying facts and
lore. I know of quite a few places in the U.S. which
have surveyor’s statues, surveying exhibits, or even
a surveying-orientated hall or museum. Our goal is to
be the national repository for all such artifacts. The
Museum would love to have surveying histories from
around the country. The Museum would like to have
a cache of photos, images and sculptures depicting
surveying in all the states. We have tried to get one
person from each state to collect historical information
for the Museum. We can be the place for surveying
history, but we need you.
I’m a history graduate and a secondary education
graduate, so I see the power of history and the power
of inspiration provided by the museum experience. But
what excites me most about the National Museum of
Surveying is the role it wants to play in ensuring the
future of surveying.
Every visitor to the Museum is introduced to surveying
as a career that is both interesting and prestigious. What
surprises me the most every time I give a tour is the astonishment over the education requirements and then the
further astonishment over how hard it is to find a school to
meet those requirements. Most people who come to the
Museum have no idea that surveying is a profession, and
they certainly don’t know the reasons behind such stringent requirements. Adults time and time again said they
wished they knew about surveying in school, just for the
opportunity to explore it as a career.
Students are naturally a tougher sell until talk centers on the technology involved. This is why we have
NOAA’s Science on a Sphere, and a GIS intern drawing
GIS maps for the globe. We are about to open a Community Mapping Center with GIS-enabled computers.
We are trying our hardest to get surveyors involved to
lead Saturday activities. We try to entice the outdoors
fans and the computer geeks to consider surveying.
We go to the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, just as often
as they come to us. We tailor the tour of the Museum
to the school curriculum. With your help, we can
develop more intensive surveying activities that the
schools could adopt and adapt to their needs.
I hope surveyors around the country start to see the
National Museum of Surveying as their home, their
homage, their commemoration. Everyday, we tell the story
of surveying to people who are bewildered at this segment
of American life. Visitors quip that all they knew before
they came to the Museum was that surveyors charged a
lot for a simple piece of paper—and without explanation.
We explain all that is behind that piece of paper. They leave
feeling better about the money they had spent.
The Museum hopes you join us in explaining this piece
of paper. We need stories. We need to be included in the
debate about the future of surveying. We need more and
more educational materials. We need modern equipment
to help inspire more students. We need to be included in
your vacation plans, as Springfield Illinois is a great multiday vacation destination. We are an hour and half from
St. Louis and within one to a few blocks of all the Lincoln
sites. Most of all, we hope to your thoughts on how to
get the word out about surveying will include the Museum.
This is your Museum, dedicated to your profession, and we
hope you not only come to the Museum but include it in
the practice of your profession. We are dedicated to you,
and we hope we can earn your dedication to us.
Please visit our website, surveyingmuseum.org, check
us out on YouTube, or drop by for a visit. The Museum will
improve with your help, and I hope that for the sake of the
profession I have fallen in love with you do get involved. I
love this place. I love what it stands for. I love knowing that
a needed profession is being served. I hope you can love
your place as much as I, an outsider, do. I have to thank all
the surveyors who do support us so generously. We have
had plenty. I’m honored every time a surveyor tells us how
much he (another letter for why not more “she” is coming)
loved the place. Many surveyors have financially supported
us in the past. Thanks go to them as well. In the final analysis, this letter is really about including us in all the substantive discourse about surveying which would in turn help
us realize the full potential of your Museum. We have an
opportunity to do something great if we all work together
to achieve the Museum’s mission. I feel like ending with
“Love, your assistant director,” but ... Sincerely,
Matthew Parbs
Assistant Director
[email protected]
december 2011 | acsm bulletin |