The passion for my former profession came from my father, who like me was a licensed professional Ontario Land Surveyor (OLS) for most of his working career. The vintage photo at the top of the “Vintage Surveying Ephemera” page shows my father, Wallace Franklin “Frank” Robinson, OLS #952, circa 1950 during his early years as a survey party chief for the DHO (Department of Highways of Ontario) doing township line retracement near Pauche in northern Ontario (he’s the one doing his field notes while supervising his instrument man). In 1952 he joined the highly regarded firm of Bowman, Black & Shoemaker in Guelph, Ontario, where he eventually articled under E.P. Bowman, OLS, DLS, P.Eng. & obtained his OLS license in 1957. Shortly after Mr. Bowman’s death in 1964, my father became a partner in the firm then known as Black, Shoemaker & Robinson (aka BSR).
I began my own surveying career in 1967 at age 15, working summers & holidays for BSR. In 1976, I earned my B.Sc. as part of the first graduating class of the (then) new “Surveying Sciences” program at the Erindale College campus of the University of Toronto. After graduating from U of T, I began working ‘full time’ at what had by then become Black, Shoemaker, Robinson & Donaldson (aka BSRD) & served my “articles” under the well-respected senior partner, Sidney Wilfred “Fred” Black, OLS. After completing my professional exams in 1979 I received my professional license as OLS #1472. A recession in 1979-80 led to me joining J.D. Barnes Surveyors in their Brampton office in early 1980, where I acted as the assistant office manager until the beginning of 1984 when I joined the City of Mississauga as their Chief Surveyor. Following the retirement of BSRD’s senior partner on Dec. 31, 1987, I left the City of Mississauga to become a full partner in “Black, Shoemaker, Robinson & Donaldson”. Near the end of my working career, to ensure the long term survival of our company & also as part of a mid to long term exit strategy for myself & my 2 remaining partners (professional planner Nancy Shoemaker & Kerry Hillis, OLS) , in 2016 we sold our business to “J.D. Barnes”, one of my early employers & the largest surveying firm in Ontario. I acted as a senior “Project Manager” until my full retirement in October, 2019. ………To this day, my former company continues to operate in Guelph under its current name: “Black, Shoemaker, Robinson & Donaldson, Surveyors, a Division of J.D. Barnes Limited”).
My mother sparked my avid interest in history. Both my father & my articling mentor (Fred Black) fostered a deep respect for my profession & for our company’s more than 110 years of continuous professional land surveying service to the residents of the City of Guelph & surrounding counties (originally founded in Guelph by D.A. Niven, OLS in 1915). Along the way I also developed a strong admiration for the amazing craftsmanship that went into the making of the many instruments of precision used by the forerunners in my chosen profession as they explored & opened up our great country in the late 1700’s, 1800’s & early 1900’s. All of the above things combined to feed my decades long interest in collecting & researching the “tools of my trade”.
I am currently in the very early stages of tweaking written content & populating the various vintage surveying categories listed in the drop-down menus with descriptions & photos of items from my collection of vintage surveying equipment & paraphernalia. My intent is to eventually include annotated photos of everything in my vintage surveying collection (for the most part I will be adding items every week until everything is posted) ……… I estimate there are roughly 350 items in my vintage surveying collection, so it will take a while, which means there will always be something new to look at.
As you browse through my web site, please feel free to add comments about what you find or to share some related knowledge …….. simply click on the “Blog” drop-down menu & then on the “Read More” tab to get to the commenting area. For general browsing, the drop-down menu system will help you zone in on the main categories and specific brands or items. …….. Or if you prefer, you can try out our great Search Feature to help you find the link to whatever subject or item you search for, which you can then simply click on to take you directly to it.
Feel free to contact me by email if you have any questions, comments or have a particular interest in any of the items I post here. I try hard to make sure my postings & item descriptions are correct, but honest mistakes happen, or new information comes to light (there’s lots of information out there that I’m not aware of). If I’ve made any dating or description errors or omissions in my posted vintage surveying items or write-ups, I’d love to hear from you, so that I can make the appropriate correction(s) …….. While one of the goals of my website is simply to show off my collection of surveying items that represent the surveying tools used by surveyors from roughly the mid 1800’s to the mid 1900’s, I also hope to promote the free exchange of good information within the “Vintage Surveying Collectibles World”, and your input is critical to improving the historical & technical information that is often not readily available.
Also check out the interesting links to other websites that I love to visit in the Links page. I’d also like to extend an invitation to anyone who enjoys fishing or antique fishing tackle, to visit my other recently launched website: www.vintagehooks.ca , which is a fairly new website I’ve set up to display the roughly 2000 pieces of antique fishing tackle in my “vintage fishing tackle” collection ……… It’s now up & running and because many of my collection items have not been uploaded yet, there will be lots of new items added to that site every week as well.
Ian Robinson,
OLS #1472 (retired), B.Sc. (Land Surveying – University of Toronto), OLIP (retired)
ian.robinson@sympatico.ca
ian@vintagehooks.ca