History of Surveying and Measurement

Collections and Exhibitions

Collections that are of interest to the International Institution for the History of Surveying & Measurement include instruments, books and documents. There are numerous collections of old surveying instruments around the world, many of which are not catalogued or listed in any form. For Europe there is a listing of collections in Historische Vermessungsinstrumente (Historical Surveying Instruments) by Helmut Minow. 2nd edition. 1990. Verlag Chmielorz GmbH, Wiesbaden. ISBN 3-87124-064-8.

The listing does not include private collections.

Many museums and similar establishments have small collections but from this reference it will be obvious where the main collections are housed.

For collections of historical books and documents relating to surveying and kindred subjects sources are at present not comprehensively listed. In London, for example, there are good sized collections at the libraries of :

• The National Museum of Science & Industry, London
  Exhibition Rd, London SW7 2DD, UK
  
• The British Museum, London
  Gt Russell St, London WC1B 3DG
  
• Royal Geographical Society
  1 Kensington Gore, London SW7 2AR, UK
  
• Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors
  12 Great George St, Westminster, London SW1P 3AD, UK
  
• Royal Astronomical Society
  Burlington House, Piccadilly, London W1V 0NL
  
• Royal Society
  6 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1Y 5AG
  
• National Maritime Museum
  Greenwich, London SE10 9NF, UK
  
• Royal Greenwich Observatory
  (Records held at University of Cambridge Library)
  
• India Office Library and Records
  at the British Library
  
• The Museum of the History of Science
  Broad St, Oxford, OX1 3AZ UK
  
• The Whipple Museum of the History of Science
  Free School Lane, Cambridge, CB2 3RH,UK
  
• Museum of American History
  Washington D.C. USA
  
• National Technical Museum
  Kostelni 42, Prague 7, Czech Republic
  
• Deutsches Museum München
  München, Germany
  
• Museum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte der Stadt Dortmund
  Hansastrasse 3, D-4600 Dortmund 1, Germany
  
• Epact: Scientific Instruments of Medieval and Renaissance Europe
  Epact is an electronic catalogue of medieval and renaissance scientific instruments from four European museums: the Museum of the History of Science, Oxford, the Istituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza, Florence , the British Museum, London, and the Museum Boerhaave, Leiden.
   
• Surveying Museum
  Locked Bag 40, Coorparoo Mail Centre, Q 4151, Australia
• Technical Museum in Zagreb, Croatia
• Museum of Surveying, Lansing, MI, USA
• Virtual Museum of Surveying
• University of New South Wales Virtual Surveying Instrument Collection Surveying Instrument Collection, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia

This virtual museum provides photographs and short descriptions and particulars of the (presently) 100 instruments held by the closed access UNSW Surveying Instrument Collection. The collection contains 'scientific and mathematical instruments', 'theodolites', 'levels' and 'EDM instruments' that were donated by government departments, companies and individual surveyors or were kept from inhouse stock on reaching obsolescence. For example the collection includes a 1959 Geodimeter NASM-2A electronic distance meter and the Watts & Sons theodolite used for the setting out of the Sydney Harbour Bridge (1925-1931).
http://www.gmat.unsw.edu.au/final_year_thesis/f_pall/html/index.html

• Alberta Land Surveyors' Association: Alberta's Survey History: http://www.landsurveyinghistory.ab.ca/  
• Geomatics Sciences at Laval University, Quebec City, Canada - Department's Permanent Exposition on Geomatics
  http://gps-rs.scg.ulaval.ca/en/History/exposition_en.htm

Exhibitions

The International Institution for the History of Surveying & Measurement mounted a very successful exhibition on The Art and History of Surveying & Measurement in parallel with the FIG Congress in Brighton, UK in 1998. That exhibition consisted of 43 panels each containing a total of  around 150 images depicting events in the history of surveying. It was accompanied by a descriptive booklet listing the numerous international sources from which the illustrations were obtained. Since its launch it has been shown in Switzerland, S Africa and at other venues in the UK.

It is available for purchase on CD ROM for anyone to exhibit. Further details from David A Wallis.

Permanent exhibitions can be found at:

Science Museum
Exhibition Rd, London SW7 2DD, UK

Museum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte der Stadt Dortmund
Hansastrasse 3, D-4600 Dortmund 1, Germany

National Technical Museum
Kostelni 42, Prague 7, Czech Republic

Museum of American History
Washington D.C. USA

The Museum of Surveying, Michigan
220 S. Museum Drive, Lansing, MI 48933 USA

Surveying Museum
c/o Locked Bag 40, Coorparoo Mail Centre, Q 4151, Australia

The Virtual Museum of Surveying

Virtual Collection of Surveying Instruments

Virtual Archive Wild Heerbrugg (Switzerland)

Collection Kern (Switzerland)

Virtual Museum of Piri Reis

Virtual Library Eduard Imhof

Collection of Maps Swiss Federal Institute of Technologie

Historic Maps worldwide