General Information
Locating Fire Insurance Maps at UCB
Microform Collections
Fire Insurance Maps in Other Locations
Digital Sanborn Maps
Purchasing Information
Sources of Additional Information

General Information

Fire insurance maps are detailed city plans, usually at scales of 50 or 100 feet to an inch. They show individual building "footprints," complete with construction details, such as building material (brick, adobe, frame, etc.), height (of larger buildings), number of stories, location of doors, windows, chimneys and elevators, use of structure (dwelling, hotel, church, etc.), street address, and occasionally the ethnicity of the occupants. Other features shown include lot lines, street widths, water pipes, hydrants and cisterns, and fire-fighting facilities.
View Sample Map
Legend to Sanborn maps (color)
Legend to Sanborn maps (black & white)

The maps were originally produced for insurance underwriters, who used them to determine risks and establish premiums. Today these maps are used by scholars and researchers in such fields as history, urban geography, architectural history and preservation, ethnic studies, and urban archaeology.

One of the earliest fire insurance maps is Richard Horwood's 1792-1799 map of London. Plans for American cities became widely available in the mid-nineteenth century. The earliest extant one for a city in the western United States is S.J. Gower's 1851 "Map of the Burnt District of San Francisco Showing the Extent of the Fire." Relatively few insurance maps made before 1884, when copyright deposit in the Library of Congress was required, survive. Sanborn maps are produced today, primarily for major cities and by contract for smaller ones.

NOTE: Most updated versions of Sanborn (and other fire insurance) maps are original editions with pasted-on correction slips. In such cases, the date of the information is usually a penciled date contained in a "corrections box" at the beginning of the set or volume, rather than the date appearing on the title sheet.

Locating Fire Insurance Maps at UC Berkeley

Fire insurance maps are located in three libraries on the Berkeley campus:

• The Bancroft Library (originals)
• Earth Sciences & Map Library (photocopies and microforms; current San Francisco)
• University Archives (originals of U.C. Berkeley and surroundings)

In addition, Digital Sanborn Maps for California cities, 1867-1970, are available online and can be accessed from any UC Berkeley campus computer connected to the internet.

Records for the maps may be found in the Pathfinder and MELVYL catalogs. To locate records, search by "subject keyword" (the order is not important).

INSURANCE FIRE [GEOGRAPHIC PLACE NAME] MAPS
INSURANCE FIRE CALIFORNIA SAN FRANCISCO MAPS
INSURANCE FIRE TURKEY MAPS

NOTE: Most fire insurance maps for California are parts of large sets and will not be retrieved when a city name is added to a search. These large sets are in our Microform Collections, which have their own indexes.

A list of Fire Insurance Maps of Berkeley and Albany is available. In addition, some "predefined searches" below will retrieve records from Pathfinder, the Library's online catalog. Make sure you view the "Full Display" to see all "Holdings." The dates in the "Brief Display" do not reflect the actual dates of the holdings.

Microform Collections

Most of the Earth Sciences & Map Library's fire insurance maps are in collections of microfilm or microfiche. Individual maps contained in these sets are seldom listed separately in the catalogs. Below are descriptions of some of the library's largest and most highly-used sets.

Microfilm 31073 | Microfilm 77648 | Microfiche 24610 | Other Collections -- California and western U.S.

Microfilm 31073  View catalog records
The library's largest set of fire insurance maps on microform (76 reels) contains all Sanborn maps of California in the Library of Congress' collection, which includes 569 cities and towns, dating from about 1884 through 1957.

For contents of this set, see the guide in the Earth Sciences & Map Library's microform area (a duplicate printed guide is also available at The Bancroft Library) or the online, searchable index. Some small towns do not show up in this list because they are included with nearby large cities. Therefore, check the index in the back of the following work to see if the town is listed:

Fire Insurance Maps in the Library of Congress: Plans of North American Cities and Towns Produced by the Sanborn Map Company: a Checklist. 1981.
(HG9771 U54 1981  Earth Sciences & Map Library, Environmental Design)
(Z6026 I7U54 1981  Bancroft Library)
View catalog record

Microfilm 77648  View catalog record
The second largest set of California Sanborn maps on microfilm consists of 225 cities and towns mapped between 1911-1991. These maps are from the Sanborn Map Company Archives, and the majority are post-1950. A printed guide to the contents of this set is available in the microform area of the library; an online index is also available.

Microfiche 24610  View catalog record
Another large microform collection, this set contains over 2,000 maps, mainly of factory sites in the eastern U.S. and Canada, from the Manufacturers Mutual Fire Insurance Company Industrial Site Collection, 1894-1954. For contents, see the printed index, shelved in the library's microform area:

Guide to the Manufacturers Mutual Fire Insurance Company Industrial Site Maps, 1894-1954
(Microfiche 24610 guide  Earth Sciences & Map Library)

Other Collections
The Earth Sciences & Map Library holds a number of additional microform collections of Sanborn (and other) fire insurance maps. Collections for cities in California and the western United States are listed below. Search these titles in the "Full Display" in Pathfinder to see the cities and dates included.

Fire Insurance Maps in Other Locations

Current Sanborn maps can most likely be found in city government offices: planning, zoning, public works, engineering, or redevelopment. Maps (generally older ones) held by other libraries can be found listed in bibliographies such as:

Catalogue of Sanborn Atlases at California State University, Northridge. 1973.

(E38.A12C3  Environmental Design Library, Earth Sciences & Map Library)

(pZ6028.R42  Bancroft)

Online version

Union List of Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps Held by Institutions in the United States and Canada. 1976-1977.

(HG9771.A12H6 Environmental Design Reference, Earth Sciences & Map Library)

Online version

Fire Insurance Plans in the National Map Collection [Canada]. 1977.

(HG9771.N38 1977 Earth Sciences & Map Library)

The Center for Research Libraries in Chicago holds microfilm of all Sanborn fire insurance maps in the Library of Congress (up through 1970). Eligible U.C. Berkeley users may borrow them through the Interlibrary Borrowing Service. Information needed (from: Fire Insurance Maps in the Library of Congress ...) is the city, date(s) and volume numbers. It generally takes about three weeks for the microfilm to arrive at Berkeley. Non-UCB patrons should contact their "home" academic, public, or company library about borrowing from the Center.

Digital Sanborn Maps

California
Digital Sanborn Maps, 1867-1970--California cities  Digital maps created from ProQuest Information and Learning's microfilm collection of originals held by the Library of Congress.

Florida
Sanborn Fire Insurance Company Maps of Florida  A collection of more than 3,000 map sheets digitized from the printed maps held in the collections of the Smathers Libraries' Map & Imagery Library, at the University of Florida.

Georgia
Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps for Georgia Towns and Cities, 1884-1922  A digital collection of 4,445 Sanborn fire insurance maps from the University of Georgia Libraries.

Utah
Digital Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps of Utah, from the collection of the University of Utah's J. Willard Marriott Library.

Purchasing Information

For Historic and Current Sanborn Maps:

Environmental Data Resources, Inc. (EDR)
440 Wheelers Farms Road
Milford, CT 06461
1-800-352-0050

EDR Account Executive for the San Francisco Bay Area
Mike Vlachos
1-800-238-1847

For Currently Updated Sanborn Maps Only:

Sanborn Map Company
1-800-930-3298
Order Online

Sources of Additional Information

History of Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps

Description and Utilization of the Sanborn Map. Sanborn Map Company, 1949, 1960.

pGA325 S3 1949 Bancroft Library

GA325.S3 1960 Earth Sciences & Map Library

Description and Utilization of the New Reduced Size Sanborn Map. Sanborn Map Company, [195-?]

ffG325 S3 1950z Bancroft Library

"U.S. Fire Insurance Maps, 1852-1968" / Ristow, W. W.

Surveying and Mapping 30(1970):19-41 (TA501.S78  NRLF)

Quarterly Journal of the Library of Congress (July 1968):194-217 (Z733.U57.Q5  MAIN)

Reprint (GA405.5 R5 1970  EART)

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Last updated 9/15/08