The National Museum of Surveying is pleased to announce the first event at the new Museum in Springfield, Illinois. “Museum Preview Night“ will be held on surveyor Abraham Lincoln’s 200th birthday, Thursday evening, February 12, 2009 at the Museum which is literally across the street from the Old State Capitol where Lincoln served as Illinois State Representative and where he gave his famous “House Divided” speech.

The party will be held in conjunction with the Illinois Professional Land Surveyors Annual Conference. To celebrate Lincoln’s bicentennial birthday, Lincoln scholars from around the world will be in Springfield that day for symposia on Lincoln’s life. So will we surveyors, to celebrate Lincoln and the opening of the National Museum of Surveying. Not all of the displays will be completed by that date, but the extensive interior renovations are complete, “Science on a Sphere” (one focal point of the Museum) is complete and a wide representation of early American surveying equipment is on display. To accommodate our group and the Lincoln scholars and aficionados, that evening, the Old State Capitol Building (across the street) will be open for viewing and tours. It will be quite a night for our Museum, its members and surveyors, generally. Drinks and hors d’oeuvres will be served. Tickets will be $15.00.

For more information, tickets and reservations, see: www.iplsa.org or email: mchurch245@aol.