Surveying in the United States 1930 to Present

Abstract

Surveying and mapping in the United States have undergone dramatic changes over the past 75 years. Surveyors have progressed from transits and steel tapes to GPS, from logarithmic and trigonometric tables to laptop computers, from dusty, old map repositories to online digital media and more. The introduction of new technologies, along with new surveying sciences such as photogrammetry, has changed the face of the surveying profession dramatically over this period.The typical land surveyor in 1930 was either a product of an apprenticeship or a graduate of an engineering program. As registration, and later licensing, of surveyors became common, the apprenticeship era as the path to the surveying profession began to fade as more and more states began to require a degree in surveying, or a degree with a strong surveying content, before granting licenses to surveyors.