Benefits of Using SanbornMaps for ExploringHistories and Places

Beth Filar WilliamsColorado Library Consortiumbwilliams@clicweb.org

Outline

I. What are Sanborn Maps?

II. History of Sanborn Company

III. Reading Sanborn Maps

IV. Uses of the Sanborn Maps

V. Bibliography

I. What are Sanborn Maps?

•Fire Insurance Maps•Large Scale•Detailed (50 feet to 1 inch)•Date Back to the 1860s•Updated Regularly Until 1950s•Approximately 12,000 U.S.towns and cities mapped!

Partial of “Map of Congested District ofSalt Lake City Utah”

1911 The Sanborn Mapping Company

(Scale 200ft to 1in)

Online Digital Sanborn Maps

CU Boulder (NEW!)http://libluna.lib.ad.colorado.edu/sanborn/index.asp

UC Berkeley Info and Mapshttp://www.lib.berkeley.edu/EART/sanborn.html

Geostat Center and Department of History, University of Virginia.http://fisher.lib.virginia.edu/collections/maps/sanborn/

University of Florida Librarieshttp://www.uflib.ufl.edu/digital/collections/sanborn/query/index.html

University of Utah Librarieshttp://www.lib.utah.edu/digital/collections/sanborn/

University of Georgia Librarieshttp://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/sanborn/?Welcome

OhioLINK digital Media Center (need permission and authentication to enter)

http://dmc.ohiolink.edu/David Rumsey Collection has a few Sanborns

http://davidrumsey.com/northamericanatlases.htmlIupui Libraries – sanborns of Indianapolis

http://indiamond6.ulib.iupui.edu/SanbornJP2/

Detail of painting from 1666 of the Great Fire of London by anunknown artist. Photo taken from Wikipedia

London was prone to fires throughout its history

II. History of the Sanborn Maps

Fire InsuranceMaps emergedin London in thelate 1700s

http://www.oldmap.co.uk/detailmaps/londafterfiredetail.jpg

Supplied information to insuranceunderwriters

Growth of insurance basedmapping companies, late 1800s

Rates based according to the relativerisk of fires

Insurance Mapping in America

Daniel A. Sanborn foundedthe Sanborn National

Insurance Diagram Bureauin 1867

Portrait of Daniel A. Sanborn http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/EART/snb-intr.html

Shortened the name “Sanborn MapCompany” in 1902

Eventually emerged as the leader in the field due toabsorption of other companies, high accurate,detailed maps and standardized symbolization

(published in 1905)

Surveyors:

•Worked anonymously

•Names never appeared on maps

•Occasionally gained notoriety orcelebrity after leaving the Company

•Sanborn’s peak in 1920 – surveyor inevery state!

Sanborn maps contain a rich amountof information and detail….

To understand & interpret the mapsyou must use the complex legend!

III. Reading Sanborn Maps

Color Keys available:http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/EART/images/sandkey.jpg

OR

http://palmm.fcla.edu/sanborn/mapkey.htm

Most Sanborn maps were drawn at a scale of 50feet to 1 inch until after WWII

http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/hp/buildings/sanborn_maps.asp

Show size, shape, andconstruction ofcommercial buildings(C or S), dwellings (D,F or R), and structures.

Paonia Colorado circa 1908From ghostdepot.com

Not just location but the compositionof all buildings within a city or town.

Stone BuildingFireproof Building

Wood FrameBuilding

Wood Frame w/Iron Facade

Maps noted strength of firedepartment and sometimes thenumber of engines or firefighters ateach station!

Shows location ofwater and gasmains as well asthings likesprinklers,hydrants, andalarms.

And labels on most public buildings

Reno, NV1899

Maps show street names, railroadlines, and Indian Reservations.

Index maps may include prevailing winds,population estimates, fire departmentdetails, and water facility information.

Thematic Map of Chicago StockyardProduced by the Sanborn Company(date unknown)

Chicago Stockyards1947

It took less than one week following theChicago Stockyard fire of 1934 to producean updated map.

Disasters

Each yearrevised maps w/correction slips –paste-ons.

Corrections and Updates:

The Decline of the Fire Insurance Maps:

•The maps were costly

•1929 stock market crash and depression

•During WWII government placed restrictions onmap production and building construction

•Difficulty keeping pace with the post WWIIpopulation and development boom

By the 1960s the insurance industry shiftedaway from using maps to assess risk

IV. Uses of the Sanborn Maps

•Urban Morphology

•Historical Sociology

•Archeology

•Historic Preservation

•Genealogy

•Urban Historians

•Treasure Hunting

•And much more!

Urban Morphology

Study the physical form of a city including:• street patterns• buildings sizes and shapes• architecture• population density• patterns of land uses

•How does physical form produce orreproduce social forms?

Urban Morphology Example

Dr. Vaselka used Sanborn mapsto examine how the the designand placement of courthousesquares in Texas affected senseof community.

Quickbird Satellite Image ofDenton, TX“Courthouse on the Square”

The development of the Barrio LibreNeighborhood, Tucson

1886190119191948

Urban Morphology Example

http://southwest.library.arizona.edu/barr/body.1_div.2.html

Historical Sociology

•Study the past to find out howsocieties work and change

Example: Washington DC “alley life”

http://www.economist.com

DC Alley Dwellings Example

Following the Civil War - housingshortage - small dwellings built in alleysbetween D.C city blocks – many werebrothels!

Public perception of allies and inhabitants:•filthy•squalid•crime ridden•drunken•rampant immorality and disease

Most residents were poor and/or AfricanAmerican.

Investigations into these “red lightdistricts” were conducted in theearly 1900s.

View of Louse Alley published in Weller's1909 expose Neglected Neighbors.

DC Alley Dwellings Example

Louse Alley wasconsidered one of theworst offenders.

Alley dwellings abolished during early 20th c. …. LouseAlley renamed Armory Place (& became minor street)….Armory Place demolished in 1930s (part of a“beautification” campaign)…. Temporary housing waserected here after WWII…. For a time part of the areawas used as dedicated open space.

Currently - American IndianMuseum stands the site ofLouse Alley but before it wasbuilt intensive archeologicalinvestigations were conducted& incredible artifacts found!

Sanborn mapsguided the

excavation and areone of the fewrecords of both“alley life” and“alley dwellers”

Archeology

Sanborn mapsfrequently aidarcheologist – they arethe building foot prints!

From Footprint of a Sawmill:Archeological Investigation Into the Nurre …

Historic Preservation

Taos square in historicGeorgetown, CO awaitsrestoration.

Wisconsin Historical Society –how to use Sanbornsto research old buildings:http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/hp/buildings/sanborn_maps.asp

Historic Preservation

Sanborn Maps are an excellentresource for historic preservation.

From:http://saahp.rwu.edu/saahp_gallery/cms-files/historicpreservation/01.jpg

• historical evolution of buildings

• historic uses of buildings

• determine what building materialsshould be used conservation andrehabilitation

Genealogy

The study or investigation ofancestry and family history.

• Generally do not contain family names - butdo you know the address of an ancestor?

• Only cover urban areas so best for researchof city dwelling ancestors

• Study urbanization of cities• Inferences about how housing sites were developed• Explore how transportation routes developed over

time• Scan whole city at once at one time• Find unique structures of the time – and note

changes in time.• Growth and movement of immigrant groups in cities• Determine owner builders dwellings• “Way in which North Americans made their way into

the suburbs” (from Robert Harris “Reading Sanborns…”)

Urban HistoriansUrban Historians

•identify past land uses

Treasure Hunting

Bottle hunters usemetal detectors to findtreasure … also useSanborn maps tolocate privy orouthouse sites!

Compliments of “Digger Odell Publications”from http://bottlebooks.com

Researching a property for sale or selling as to historical valueand/or to restore.

Curious about old neighborhood and wants to know what lookedlike “back in the day of his grandfather”

Looking for evidence of buildings designated as "historic” arereally historic and historically preserved

Many Architecture students use them for various projects

Environmental research (could an old service station have everoccupied the property with the gas tanks possibly neverhaving been dug up?)

Use in Map Libraries

University of Colorado at Boulder MapLibrary – example patrons request for Sanborn maps:

Other Ideas

•MIT Open CourseWare: a database of free MIT course materials. Searchfor "sanborn" to access some fabulous resources.

•A lesson plan for 8th graders entitled A Road Map to Our Town, by AnnaMoyer developed during a class taught by Professor Susan Hardwick atthe University of Oregon.

•A Walk Down Main street: Exploring Your Local Community, a lessondeveloped by Pat Gore at Greenwood Elementary in Independence, MO.Hosted by the Missouri Geographic Alliance.

•Other ideas you have?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanborn_Maps (general information)http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/EART/snb-intr.html (Great detailed history of sanborns)http://www.si.edu/oahp/nmaidig/ (DC alley life)http://www.si.edu/oahp/madam/index.html (DC alley life)

Bibliography and Weblinks:

Day, Grant, Jonathan Kerr& Jeffery Mauck. Footprint of a Sawmill: Archeological

Investigation Into the Nurre Sawmill in Williamsburg, KY. Available online at:http://www.crai-ky.com/education/reports/sawmill.pdf

Gates, Tom. “Information About Digital Sanborn Maps.” Kent State University, Libraries &Media Services. 2001. Available online at: http://dmc.ohiolink.edu/help/sanborngates.html

Harris, Robert. “Reading Sanborns for the Spoor of the Owner-Builder, 18902-1950s”Exploring Everyday Landscapes: Perspectives in Vernacular Architecture, v. 7. 1997. p251-267

Weller, Charles F. Neglected Neighbors: Stories of Life in the Alleys, Tenements, andShanties of the National Capital. Philadelphia: J.C. Winston, 1909.

Purchasing Information

For Historic and Current Sanborn Maps:• Environmental Data Resources, Inc. (EDR)

440 Wheelers Farms RoadMilford, CT 064611-800-352-0050http://www.edrnet.com/reports/historical.html

For Currently Updated Sanborn Maps Only:• Sanborn Map Company

1-800-930-3298http://www.sanborn.com/

Find a library who owns them in your state:http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/EART/sanbul_libs.html