Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps - Starting
in 1867 the Sanborn Map Company began the production of fire insurance
maps that eventually covered 12,000 communities in the United States,
Canada, and Mexico. These large scale maps, drawn at scales of 1"=50'
and 1"=100', were created to assist fire insurance agents in determining
the degree of risk associated with commercial, industrial, and residential
property within a community. Shown on the maps are the "footprints" of
individual buildings, including their dimensions, shape, height, location
of doors and windows, building material, and uses; ethnicity of occupants
(occasionally); and other property details and city improvements, including
lot lines, street widths, fire hydrants, and other fire-fighting facilities.
These maps frequently represent the most detailed information
on historical urban land use and are used by scholars and professionals
in history, geography, architecture, and environmental engineering.
A key
to map notations provided by the Sanborn Map Company is available.
For additional background information on fire insurance maps see:
- Sanborn
Fire Insurance Maps (UC Berkeley Map Library) This is the introduction
found in Fire Insurance Maps in the Library of Congress: A Checklist
(Library of Congress. Geography and Map Division) 1981 (Docs LC 5.2:F51)
that lists fire insurance maps found in the Library of Congress.
- Fire Insurance Maps: Their History and Applications
(Oswald) 1997 (HG 9771 O89 1997)
The following California libraries contain
extensive collections of microform, print, or digital Sanborn fire insurance
maps that supplement HSU Library holdings for northwestern
California. Indexes are available at each library to their California
holdings.
