Exploration & Places
Lewis and Clark: Mapping a Continent One Observation at a Time
How compass traverses, celestial observations, Indigenous geographic knowledge, and disciplined field notes shaped the maps of the Corps of Discovery.
From the Index
Tag: Survey Expeditions
The journeys, logistics, and people behind surveys carried out across unfamiliar or demanding landscapes.
People of Surveying
The Surveyors of the Northwest: Measuring the First Public Lands
The Seven Ranges, Thomas Hutchins, and the field crews who turned the Land Ordinance of 1785 into monuments, notes, and a lasting national survey system.
Exploration & Places
Walking a Nation: Ino Tadataka and the Survey of Japan
How a retired merchant, local collaborators, astronomy, traverses, and repeated journeys produced Japan’s celebrated Ino maps.
Engineering & Infrastructure
Surveying the Panama Canal, Part 1: Finding a Route Between Two Oceans
How reconnaissance, maps, levels, rivers, and competing canal concepts shaped the choice of a route across Panama.
Exploration & Places
Surveying the Highest Peak, Part 1: Building the Great Trigonometrical Survey
How baselines, giant theodolites, triangulation, and an immense field organization carried a geodetic network across India.
Engineering & Infrastructure
Surveying the Iron Road, Part 1: How Early American Railroads Found a Line
How reconnaissance, profiles, curves, grades, and maps turned proposed railroads into buildable routes.