Collection Items
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Web Page
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Web PageHow to View Maps Maps and other large images are presented as GIF or JPEG files and require no special viewers, unless you choose to download and view maps offline.
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Web PageRelated Resources Collections of Sanborn insurance maps are to be found in other North American libraries. The holdings of some of these institutions are listed in the two-volume checklist, Union List of Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps Held by Institutions in the United States and Canada External, published in 1976-77 by the Western Association of Map Libraries.
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Web PageRights & Access The content of the Library of Congress online Sanborn Maps Collection is in the public domain and is free to use and reuse.
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ArticleArticles and Essays Top of page Skip to main content Library of Congress Search Everything Audio Recordings Books/Printed Material Films, Videos Legislation Manuscripts/Mixed Material Maps Notated Music Newspapers Periodicals Personal Narratives Photos, Prints, Drawings Software, E-Resources Web Archives
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ArticleIntroduction to the Collection The Sanborn map collection consists of a uniform series of large-scale maps, dating from 1867 to the present and depicting the commercial, industrial, and residential sections of some twelve thousand cities and towns in the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
- Date: 1867
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ArticleSanborn Samplers To illustrate the value of fire insurance maps for historical research, maps of a number of locations around the country are reproduced here and presented with a brief history of the site and some explanation of significant features as portrayed on the maps. These locations were selected because of their historical importance, their popularity as places to visit, or because they represent important types...
- Date: 1867
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ArticleSanborn Time Series Fire insurance maps are valuable to much historic research because they often provide evidence of change over time. Specific changes in an individual site such as when a building was expanded or torn down, can often be dated within a reasonably accurate time frame, depending on how many different map editions for that city are available. Change can also be examined in a larger...
- Date: 1867