Maps

Resources related to finding information resources for maps and cartography

Library of Congress Sanborn Maps

 

The most heavily used collection in the Geography and Map Division are the Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps, a collection of large-scale, building level maps, dating from 1867 to the present which depict the commercial, industrial, and residential sections of some 12,000 cities and towns in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The Sanborn collection includes about 50,000 editions of fire insurance maps comprising an estimated 700,000 individual sheets. The Library of Congress holdings represent the largest extant collection of maps produced by the Sanborn Map Company.

Sanborn Maps At OSU

The Ohio Sanborn Maps are available at OSU in several formats.

Ohio Sanborn Maps

  • Online Ohio Sanborn Fire Insurance are restricted to Ohio residents only.
    • The Ohio Public Library Information Network provides guides and tutorials for Sanborn Maps.  
  • Direct access to the Sanborn Maps 

Backgound

The Sanborn Maps were originally created for assessing fire insurance liability in urbanized areas in the United States. The maps include detailed information regarding town and building information in approximately 12,000 U.S. towns and cities from 1867 to 2007.  Founded in 1867 the Sanborn Map and Publishing Company was the primary American publisher of fire insurance maps for nearly 100 years. 

Great Britain Fire Insurance Maps

Goad fire insurance plans are unique primary source materials capturing what is, in many cases, otherwise undocumented information about buildings, land use and urban design.

  Charles E. Goad fire insurance map collection contains 41 maps that depict 17 cities in the Caribbean area, Mexico, and South America. Charles E. Goad (1848-1910), a noted cartographer and civil engineer, published the maps between 1894-1909. The maps include information relevant to fire insurance appraisal, such as size of building, number of floors, and usage (commercial, educational, residential); construction materials (concrete, brick, wood, glass); population; waterworks; and firefighting equipment. Included on some maps is the size of white population compared to the total population. The map scale differs among the locations.

Goad Fire Insurance Maps

Library of Congress