Database of the week: Digitial Sanborn Maps

Here is a rendering of Downtown Springfield in 1911. It was created as tool for the insurance industry by the Sanborn Map Company.

"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 1970."wikipedia

This collection was digitized into a database, and is available though our Library's Database website under S for Sanborn. There are many locations available. Check out your hometown!!!

Please note: The detail available in the database is much better then the photo on this blog post.