Sanborn – The Map Room

A Guide to the Library of Congress’s Collection of Fire Insurance Maps

Published on 11 May 2021 by Jonathan Crowe

Fire insurance maps are an invaluable tool for history research: they give a detailed snapshot of a city’s built environment at a given point in time. And they were made for just about every city, town and village. The Library of Congress has 50,000 fire insurance maps (700,000 individual sheets) in its collection, most of which were produced by the Sanborn Map Company. The Library has just released a resource guide to help researchers navigate its collection, and explain which maps are available (copyright is an issue with more recent maps). Announcement here.

Previously: Fire Insurance Maps Online.

Fire Insurance Maps Online

Published on 23 February 2021 by Jonathan Crowe

Penn State University Libraries’ collection of Pennsylvania Sanborn fire insurance maps dates to 1925, which means that as of this year they’re in the public domain—and freely available to use. Meanwhile, Maps Mania has a roundup of other fire insurance maps resources. The Library of Congress has a collection of 50,000 Sanborn atlases, 35,000 of which are available online (collections, navigator). In the United Kingdom, fire insurance maps were produced by Charles E. Goad Ltd.; Goad maps are available via the British Library and the National Library of Scotland.

Fire insurance maps are an invaluable resource for historical researchers: they’re extremely detailed snapshots of the built environment of virtually every city and town, and there are usually several such snapshots (I’ve seen at least three for my little village, for example), so you can chart a town’s growth over time at a level of detail an OS, quad or topo map can’t match.

Sanborn’s 150th Anniversary

Published on 13 April 2016 by Jonathan Crowe

Monday was apparently Sanborn’s 150th anniversary. Known for its detailed fire insurance maps during the late 19th and early/mid 20th centuries—a treasure trove for historians—Sanborn has since diversified into a geospatial company, though fire insurance maps are still one of their business lines. [WMS]