Are the Sanborn fire insurance maps available on line? I did not get too far with the company that apparently sells them, not finding out how to enroll in their system.

I've been told that the Sanborn maps are at the Library of Congress and that they do sell copies.

Hi,The Library of Congress had started a digital collection of the Sanborn Maps. I downloaded well over 100 in 2001/2. However, the site is gone. The Library of Congress told me the progect to digitize the 660,000 maps has been abandoned.The current site that I have never tried is http://sanborn.umi.com/Apparently it is digital search and download but it is password protected. I do not know what sort of costs or charges would be required.Doug

Some states have Sanborn maps available. In Florida, the University of Florida library has them as free downloads. In Kentucky, the maps are available via the Kentucky Historical Society and you must join the society to access them. If you do a search for Sanborn maps and add a location you are interested in, you should be able to locate them. Each state seems to have it's own method of making them available and not all states have them.I have downloaded several from the above sites and they are fascinating.I have locate railroad facilities that I never knew existed. They are so detailed that each track has 2 lines, one for each rail. I found maps of Louisville from 1892, 1898, 1905, 1828, and several up through 1940.If you want to use them for exhibition purposes, you will need to be sure to download them in the bigger sizes. Most are at 72 dpi but if you get them in 150 % or 300% you will be able to read all details clearly. One word of caution: these things are addictive!

I did some Sanborn research a few years ago on Baldwin City Kansas, adn was able to arrange for an inter-library loan of the maps (on microfilm) between my local library in Cedar Rapids and the resident location for the Kansas related maps. For the small cost of postage to return the microfilm reels, I was able to get not only what I wanted for Baldwin City, but also got to view a number of other cities for RR related sites.So don't overlook the local library! Sometimes your tax dollars really do work for you!KenB

According to the University of Missouri Ellis Library website Sanborn apparently renewed their coppyright on all of their maps in 2001 (about the same time that Lib. of Congress apparently abandoned their project), so free coppies of complete maps may not be available anywhere. However, many governments mainbtain comparably detailed maps of land plats, boundaries, and so forth. They might be available to qualified entities for a modest fee. (When I worked for St. Louis County DOH, we kept a very similar map in the office, cross referenced to a popular commercially available street atlas. It showed property lines and easements, structures, flood plains, elevation, and perhaps one or two other things. Their intent was different than Sanborn, so they did not have the internal firewall/ flamables detail, but they had greater ladform detail.) USGS photography is available as far back as the fifties, and perhaps further in some locations. Most major universities keep collections at least pertaining to their own state. You might also contact the geography department at your local university. They usually have access to some interesting databases, and they might be sympathetic to a research project with a geographic componenet. A wide variety of federal maps are available, for a small printing/shipping fee. (Tactical pilotage charts, USGS maps, as on Terraserver, Fisheries maps, Navigational and harbor maps, and so forth, and even a fair number of historic and recreational maps.) What sort of information are you looking for? I can probably get you a good list of mapping sources if I have some idea of what you want, and what location you're interested in. (Sorry to see that Sanborn is holding the copyright on the historic stuff. That is indeed frustrating.)Sincerely,David Ackermandavid_ackerman@yahoo.com