A History of Land Surveying

presentation by Jim Shomper

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Jim Shomper is a retired from a 50 year career as a Surveyor,  mostly for the City of Philadelphia.  He will be sharing his experiences and a power point presentation of his personal collection of surveying instruments.

Land surveying has been an essential element of the structure of organized civilization since ancient Egyptians were building pyramids and taking time out annually to reconstruct property lines after the annual flooding of the Nile.

The chain, a rope with periodic knots, was introduced in England in the seventeenth century, and remains a standard unit for surveying in Philadelphia to this day.  But there are a few areas where surveying has changed.

When William Penn got the land grant that became Pennsylvania, before he came himself he appointed a surveyor to come here ahead of him to lay out a plan that would become the basis for the ownership pattern that is essentially in place to this day.  But that man died on the voyage.  So Proprietor Penn recruited fellow Quaker Thomas Holme, who performed precisely as directed, much to the enrichment of the Penn family.  Thomas Holme has a marked grave in a tiny cemetery in what became the Holmesburg neighborhood of Philadelphia