NCEES inks funding arrangement with National Museum of Surveying

The NCEES Board of Directors has agreed to provide funding for the National Museum of Surveying, which is planning to open this year in a new location in downtown Springfield, Illinois.

The $75,000 donation will be used to construct a 45-seat theater and to develop educational materials for students in grades K–12. The theater will feature a 60-inch high-definition display that will be used to highlight the history and evolution of surveying and mapping in the United States. The education materials, which will be segmented by education level, will be developed in conjunction with a series of teacher workshops to be held at the museum. For its contribution, NCEES will be awarded the naming rights for the theater.

“As a leader of the engineering and surveying professions, NCEES looks for opportunities to advance the public’s understanding of these professions,” said NCEES Executive Director Jerry Carter. “We feel that the National Surveying Museum has some exciting plans that will get many young minds interested in pursuing a career as a licensed surveyor, so we are happy to help them with funding.”

The National Museum of Surveying, which first opened in 1989, will reopen this year in a 10,000-square-foot space in Springfield. The museum will feature the new “Science on a Sphere” exhibit, which uses a high-tech video system to project satellite images of the Earth’s surface on a suspended sphere. It also will include exhibits about famous Americans who practiced surveying, including Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, and Lewis and Clark. The museum’s new location is just blocks away from the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum.

Contact: Jerry T. Carter, Executive Director