Inside the Archives — Auditing and Indexing the Map Collection’s Sketch Files
The General Land Office (GLO) is pleased to announce the completion of a new index to provide better access to the most extensive record group in the agency’s vast map collection, the “Sketch Files.” This group comprises an eclectic mix of items, including sketches, surveyor reports/statements, field notes (for both connecting lines and surveys), correspondence, court judgments, and other records relating to original surveys and boundaries. Featuring 8,122 unique records dating from the 1830s to the present, these files consist primarily of multi-page documents posted as PDFs in the GLO map store — historictexasmaps.com — where they can be downloaded for free.
Notably, this is an active collection, which means surveyors are creating and submitting new material for the GLO Surveying Services Division to file within the collection. Organized by county, this record group initially served as a “catch-all” for items received during early GLO operations in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Today, however, the focus is on filing small-format, multi-page items like surveyor reports and field notes that are created and submitted to the agency by private Licensed State Land Surveyors (LSLS) or county surveyors. In contrast, larger sketches and plats received by outside surveyors are filed into the “Rolled Sketches” collection.
Historically, sketch files have always been indexed by county, with the sketch file number assigned being simply the next consecutive number available for that county. Sketch files follow the consistent titling format of <COUNTY> Sketch File <NUMBER> — for example, Travis County Sketch File 47. The first index for the sketch files, created in the early 1900s, was a simple bound ledger listing each file by county. In the 1970s, GLO staff assigned each file a bearing and distance from the county seat (if possible) and created a card catalog in the map vault. This card catalog became the preferred index, with cards arranged by county and quadrant based on the newly determined bearing and distance. As staff added new sketch files, they created new cards for the catalog.
To modernize and digitize this card catalog index, GLO staff transcribed the data into a Microsoft Access database and integrated it into an internal map archive inventory system in 2010. It soon became apparent that many of the recorded bearings and distances were inaccurate, so in 2022 the agency launched a massive effort to audit and correct the bearing and distance information for each sketch file. This involved systematically reviewing every sketch file and using the measure tool in the GLO’s online GIS Land/Lease viewer to validate or correct each file’s recorded bearing and distance.
Since staff were already examining each sketch file, they also added or updated other metadata, such as alternate titles, contributors (related people and organizations), dates, and other easily determinable metadata. Alternate titles are significant for these files since they describe concisely what each sketch file contains. Some sketch files do not have a bearing and distance associated if they are sketches or documents related to very large areas or contain documents that relate to more general information about a county. In these cases, the alternate title becomes critical for users to determine whether a particular sketch file is of interest.
The bearing and distance information and the extra metadata were updated in real-time in a new online Content Management System (CMS) which, in turn, updated the data displayed in the GLO’s online map store. Since most sketch files are posted as multi-page PDFs in the map store, staff also used this review to correct any PDFs that had pages in the wrong order.
In September 2024, this project culminated in the creation of a comprehensive digital index that is available for download in the map store as document number 97348.
After auditing and updating all metadata, staff exported select critical data (map number, title, alternate title, county, bearing and distance, and notes) from the CMS into a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. Excel was chosen for its ubiquity and ease of use and because it allows users to actively filter and sort data by column heading.
This filtering and sorting functionality is useful for isolating sketch files by county and further filtering by bearing/distance so that users can locate sketch files in their area of interest. The alternate titles are also viewable for every sketch file, which is crucial for quickly browsing files and reviewing those sketch files without the associated bearing and distance information. Direct map store permalinks are provided for each sketch file available online, and the Excel index is locked to prevent accidental changes or mis-sorting. The agency updates this index every time a new sketch file is filed within the Archives, with a revision history noted on the map store page for the index so that users can easily determine if they have the latest indexed information.
Before this project, staff completed a similar exercise for another record series, the “Rolled Sketches,” and posted the identically formatted digital index for this collection in the map store as document number 97349. Both the sketch file and rolled sketch indexing projects were made possible by the dedicated efforts of GLO Archives staff members Alex Chiba, Julia Bordelon, and Krista Schreiber, who worked tirelessly over nearly three full years to bring these initiatives and indexes to fruition.
With new indexes for both the sketch files and rolled sketches now available to the public, users can search these collections at anytime and from anywhere. Combined with the graphic indexes to the GLO’s working sketches already in the map store, surveyors and other researchers can ensure that they are able to comprehensively research the agency’s three largest collections with confidence.
