How is it that I hadn’t heard of these? Am I the only one? Last week I had traveled to the locale of my WIP and asked if they had any maps of their town in 1894. The librarian moved to her computer, clicked on http://sanborn.umi.com, put in her username and password, selected the name of the city, state and year. Then … whammy! Up popped a detailed map of their town in 1894.
It showed the size, shape and construction of dwellings, commercial buildings, and factories. It gave the widths and names of streets, property boundaries, building use, and house and block numbers. It indicated the locations of water mains, fire alarm boxes and hydrants.
The librarian swiveled around in her chair and said, “You know, you can access these from home. All you need do is call your local library and ask them for their username and password.â€
I could not believe it. Evidently these maps were designed to assist fire insurance agents in determining the hazards associated with a particular property. There are over 660,000 maps from up to 12,000 American cities dating from 1867 and up.
The only thing that disappointed me was that they weren’t in color. The key indicates the original maps color-coded the buildings according to frame, brick, iron, adobe, etc. I noticed some states (like Utah) have made Sanborn maps from their state available … in full color. That’s almost enough to make me want to set my next book in one of those towns.
In any case, I have a now downloaded and printed out (and pasted together) the map of “my town†and tacked it to the wall. Now, when I start writing today and my heroine jumps on her riding machine and cycles through town she will pass Brown’s Wagon Yard, Clark’s Ice House, Drane’s Dry Goods and even the Anheuser-Bush Beer Depot. Whew! What a ride.
Is this something everyone already knew about but me? And if so, what other goodies am I missing? Do tell!
No related posts.
I don’t think they’re that widely known outside of academic research circles — I found out about them from a friend who’s doing his doctoral dissertation in living history. His favorite story is helping a group of local ladies to discover what was occupying the property the great-grandfather of one their members owned — and it turned out it was whorehouses.
Great, great resource.
Just a word of warning. A subscription to this site costs money; I’m not sure how much. Depending on where you live and your local library’s budget, they may not be able to afford access.
For example, my city library has an annual budget of $34,142. Total. That’s salaries, new books, internet access, utilities, toilet paper, everything.
Library funding is down, pretty much all over the United States. If you really want to make a difference, call up your local library and ask what you could do to help. What one book you could buy for them, what subscription database you could fund for a year. They’ll love you for it.
(Off the soapbox…)
Our library does a tour once a month and shows you all the tools, databases etc that they link too. The stuff that is out there is AMAZING. In my next life I’m going to live in a library. So many books- so little time.
Oh, Eileen! I will have to ask my library if they do that. What a great service.
And you’re right, Sandy. Joining “Friends of the Library” for $10 a year, volunteering at the Book Sale, donating books, all those these can help tremendously. And I’m the first to confess that I don’t do all I should.
So … as an aside … who got the call for a RITA this morning??? Golden Heart???
These maps sound fascinating. I’d better not check ‘em out until I have some spare time, or I’ll never get any writing done. Thanks for the info.
Utah? Kewl. I live in Price, so if you set a book here, ask me anythin’.
Oh, we have one ‘house’ here that is now a copy center. The original house is still intact, behind the added-on storefront and it belonged to the one and only Matt Warner, who rode with Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and was later the town constable. Only in the old west, ya know LOL.
I’m going to have to check out those maps. Does anyone know of a resource for Australia? I about killed myself trying to get the lay of the land perfect for Marble Bar, Australia. And I’m pretty sure it’s wrong LOL.
Marjorie
Australia! Oh, golly, Marjorie. I have absolutely no idea! But if I set a book in Utah, you can bet it will be Price!!:smile:
Lol, I wish fire insurances had kept records of the town maps of Britain, France, Italy and Germany – and some cities here are 2000+ years old.
What I need is plans of Moguntiacum (Mayence), Camolodunum (Colchester), Tolose (Tolouse), Rome and some other places from 410 AD, please.
I suppose maps at least close to the time (+/- 50 to 100 years) are kept in the town archives, but that would require me to travel there and my bank account doesn’t like the idea, at least not all the places I’d like to go. Britain might be an option for this year and Mayence (Mainz) is within reach, maybe I could even get something via interlibrary loan.
Research is fun, isn’t it?
Argh, typo again.
It’s Tolosa
I’ve worked in library for 10 years and I’ve never heard of those maps. Thanks for putting the information out there. Also, thanks everyone for doing what you can to help out libraries. Our funding was also way reduced to the point where out director blew our new book budget back in December! She was supposed to have made it last until June 30. Now we are depending on donations for all book and AV materials until then. A local college librarian took pity and bought us a copy of Walk the Line and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
What a wonderful tool! Thanks for sharing.
*Gasp* I didn’t realize some libraries were having so much trouble! Not own a copy of Goblet of Fire!? That’s rubbish!
Gabriele, you have another typo. It’s Camulodunum. Colchester DOES have maps dating back to, I think, 9th century. You can find copies at a) Colchester History Society, b) Colchester Central Library’s reference section, and c) Colchester Castle Museum [which has a cool interactive section within the castle]. I believe Colchester Institute also has copies but in, I think, Religious archives. Maili, a former Colchester resident.