Maps & Mapping
Ferdinand Rudolph Hassler: A Swiss Immigrant’s American Coast
Stranded abroad by war and sidelined at home by Congress, Ferdinand Hassler kept pursuing a coast survey that would…
Featured Story
Introducing the Lost Surveyor Map Archive
A digital map archive is taking shape at Lost Surveyor, with Florida at its center, carefully attributed sources and tools for looking closely at the history on each sheet.
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Exploration & Navigation
James Cook: The Surveyor Before the Famous Voyages
Before the Pacific made him famous, James Cook spent years charting Newfoundland. Those coastal surveys reveal the patient mapmaker…
Boundaries & Land Rights
Benjamin Banneker: Looking to the Stars, Helping Shape a Capital
A Maryland farmer, astronomer, and almanac maker brought his skills to the new capital’s boundary survey—and used his pen…
Boundaries & Land Rights
An Old Fence, a Missing Element: Hearn Properties v. Cruce
A Madison County fence dispute shows why the history of a line matters, and why its age alone could…
Society & Culture
Four Million Acres: The Scale and Legacy of the Disston Purchase
Four million acres for $1 million: the scale of the Disston purchase and how its land, companies and investments…
Boundaries & Land Rights
Record the Sketch: Why a Legal Description Needs Its Drawing
When a sketch has already been prepared with a legal description, recording only the words leaves useful work behind.…
Boundaries & Land Rights
Andrew Ellicott: Drawing America’s Southern Line
From Washington’s future streets to the border of Spanish Florida, Andrew Ellicott turned national ambitions into lines on the…
Boundaries & Land Rights
Cooley’s Essay: Why Better Measurements Don’t Automatically Move Boundaries
Thomas Cooley’s enduring essay asks surveyors to recover established boundaries, investigate the evidence, and recognize the limits of a…
Tools & Technology
GPS Modernization Is More Than a Satellite: What GAO’s New Audit Uncovered
A surveyor using a GNSS receiver.
The Map Archive
101 maps
Explore historical maps, survey records and remarkable places from around the world.
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