ProQuest Sanborn Maps Geo Edition (1867-1970) provides digital access to thousands of large-scale maps of American towns and cities, searchable by address and GPS coordinates.

Sanborn® fire insurance maps are the most frequently consulted maps in libraries. Founded in 1867 by D. A. Sanborn, the Sanborn Map Company was the primary American publisher of fire insurance maps for nearly 100 years.

By applying the latest in geo-referencing technology to the collections, Sanborn Maps Geo Edition allows for increased discovery and greater ease of use that can unlock the histories of urban America.

Historians, urban planners, architects, environmentalists, geographers, genealogists, and others will find the maps a valuable tool for exploring the grid of everyday life in more than 12,000 U.S. towns and cities across a century of change.

Maps contain detailed data such as building outlines, size, use, construction details, and function of structures. They also give street names, street and sidewalk widths, property boundaries, house and block numbers, and other features like pipelines, railroads, and wells, and dumps.

Accessing Sanborn Maps Geo Edition

The original Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps collection on microfilm has long been one of the few comprehensive sets for the entire U.S., with some 660,000 maps.

Sanborn Maps Geo Edition uses a selection of these enhanced images from Digital Sanborn Maps. Collections currently available to libraries:

• State collections feature individual state collections for District of Columbia, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, North Carolina,New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.
• City collection features a collection of those state’s major cities, including Baltimore, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Newark, Philadelphia, Richmond, and Seattle.

In searchable, digital form, Sanborn Maps Geo Edition allows for unparalleled uses of historical urban map data. Maps contain GIS information that enables users to locate data by address or geographic coordinates. It also allows users to layer maps from different years on top of each other and over modern street, satellite, and hybrid layers using an integrated map API or by importing into GIS tools.

Try ProQuest Sanborn Maps Geo Edition in your library.

Or, contact your ProQuest Account Representative to learn more about this product and others that directly support research into the genealogy and local history, including:

• Digital Sanborn® Maps details over 100 years of urban growth in America with more than 600,000 property and land-use map images
• Historic Map Works™ Library Edition provides the largest digital collection of historic maps with nearly one million maps and growing
• HeritageQuest® Online features an incredible storehouse of American genealogical information from primary sources, local and family histories, and other finding aids
• Ancestry® Library Edition features over 200 billion images in more than 7,000 unique databases via a library edition of the popular ancestry.com
• ProQuest® Historical Newspapers delivers a definitive digital archive of significant regional, national, and international newspapers