History of Land Surveying & Map Making in Chicago

Please join out friends, the Ravenswood – Lake View Historical Society as they present, “History of Land Surveying & Map Making in Chicago.”

Donald and Tanya Smith, owners of the land surveying and map making company Greeley-Howard-Norlin & Smith, own, preserve, protect, and maintain a large collection of historical documents dating back to the early 1800s.

Included in their collection are drawings and documents related to the legal career of President Abraham Lincoln, which are potentially the only remaining assemblage of these documents due to what was lost in the Great Chicago Fire in 1871.

Learn a brief history of how and why the land in the U.S. was originally divided and sold, the need to raise money after the Revolutionary War and Thomas Jefferson idea to divide the land into squares. Hear about the rebuilding of Chicago after the fire of 1971, and Mr. Samuel S. Greeley, the founder of the Smith’s family business.

This is a free event