PSLS – Thoreau the Land Surveyors Webinar

Thoreau the Land Surveyor

Presented by: Patrick Chura, Ph.D.

Noon-1PM

Cost: $45 for PSLS members, $65 for non-members

*Eligible for 1 PDH in PA

Session Description:

In this session Patrick Chura presents an overview of his award-winning book, Thoreau the Land Surveyor.

Philosopher, writer and naturalist Henry David Thoreau supported himself for almost a dozen years through land surveying. But his work in the woods and fields was more than a job–it was a means of understanding the world through careful observation and calculation.

No one hired or paid Thoreau for the many hours of labor that went into his now-famous survey of Walden Pond in 1846. He did it simply as a search for truth, and it’s now one of the most important images in American literary history. This session will take a close look at the “Walden Map” as an example of Thoreau’s love for “solving the unknowns” with compass and chain.

While sharing insights about the work Thoreau did for both professional and experimental purposes, Chura will explain how the best surveyor in Concord managed to combine civil engineering with civil disobedience.