Information Sources for Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps

Maureen Farrell, Cleveland Public Library
Thomas Gates, Kent State University
April 2001



Selected Print Sources for Sanborn Map Information

Hoehn, R. Philip.  Union List of Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps Held by Institutions in the United States and Canada.  Santa Cruz, CA : Western Association of Map Libraries, 1976-77.

Library of Congress. Geography & Map Section.  Fire Insurance Maps in the Library of Congress: Plans of North American cities and Towns produced by the Sanborn Map Company, A Checklist.  Washington, D.C. : Library of Congress, 1981.

Oswald, Diane L.  Fire Insurance Maps: Their History and Applications. College Station, Tex.: Lacewing press, 1997.

Willis, Alfred, ed.  "Cartographic Information for Architecture."  Art Reference Services Quarterly. Volume 1, Number 3, 1993.  Binghamton, N.Y. : Haworth Press, 1993.


Internet Sources for Sanborn Map Information

Sanborn Map Company (now a subsidiary of EDR)
http://www.sanbornmap.com

Environmental Data Resources (EDR)
http://www.edrnet.com/reports/historical.html
(purchase paper copies over the net from Sanborn's own archives)

Library of Congress. Geography & Map Division
http://lcweb.loc.gov/spcoll/215.html
(only very basic info about Sanborns)

Ancestry.com
http://ancestry.com/library/view/news/articles/1422.asp

State Historical Society of Wisconsin
http://www.shsw.wisc.edu/localhistory/articles/sanborn.html
(good background, traces a sample site using Sanborns)

University of California Berkeley
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/EART/sanborn.html
(includes introduction to Library of Congress' checklist of Sanborns)

University of Virginia GEOSTAT
http://fisher.lib.virginia.edu/sanborn
(maps for Charlottesville but also great resources on Sanborn history and "how to read" a Sanborn)