Work Case 1

Lincoln the Surveyor

Among the jobs and potential careers Abraham Lincoln explored in New Salem was surveying. With Illinois still the frontier of American settler colonialism, there was a demand for laying out plats of land for sale. Here Lincoln reports to a client, John Kincaid, that he has surveyed two parcels of land near present-day Athens.

Gift of the Family of J. Kennedy Kincaid, Sr., 2005

MS-1835.03.24 – Certificate of Survey
AV-LSV029 – Lincoln’s surveying instruments (repro image is fine)

Label Audio