Sanborn Time Series: Santa Fe, New Mexico

1883

1890

1913

Building styles and materials often reflect cultural and economic development. Early settlers in an area may have adapted local materials. Over time exotic materials may have been imported into an area by immigrants seeking to build structures that reminded them of home or by those who created buildings with functions new to an area. The fire insurance maps of Santa Fe, New Mexico, provide detailed insights into this process of cultural diffusion and adaptation.

In the following examples, one city block of Santa Fe has been reproduced from three different editions.

1883	1890
1913

The annotations provided are not meant to be exhaustive. Rather, they point out some changes that occurred over time as a way to illustrate the types of information that can be gleaned from a careful study of fire insurance maps.

This illustration is the section of a panoramic map of Santa Fe drawn in 1882 that shows the same block rendered by an artist. This is example of how fire insurance maps can be used in conjunction with other cartographic materials.

Other example:

• Coney Island

Gary L. Fitzpatrick