Sanborn® fire insurance maps are detailed property and land-use records covering more than 12,000 U.S. towns and cities. Founded in 1867 by D. A. Sanborn, the Sanborn Map Company was the primary American publisher of fire maps for over 100 years, repeatedly mapping towns and cities as they changed.

The maps provide a wealth of information, such as building outline, size and shape, construction materials, height, building use, windows and doors, street and sidewalk widths, boundaries, house numbers, and more. The plans often include information and shading for steel beams or reinforced walls, plus symbols for stables, garages, warehouses, etc.

Factories are labeled with the owner's name, as well as the products manufactured there. In large industrial and commercial buildings, even individual rooms and their uses are recorded. Also depicted are pipelines, railroads, wells, water mains, dumps, and heavy machinery likely to affect the property's vulnerability to earthquake, fire, and flood.

Combined with your other reference sources—city directories, photographs, small-scale maps, census records, genealogies, and statistical data—the Sanborn maps provide an unparalleled picture of life in American towns and cities.

The original Chadwyck-Healey^TM 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. We've enhanced and digitized the same maps for inclusion in the Digital Sanborn Maps collection.  We also make each set of maps for each state available separately so you can create a package to suit your individual needs.

The electronic interface makes it easy to find the locations you want. Initially accessible by state and community, the maps also pinpoint the streets, landmarks, and other places noted in the map's index. Once displayed, the maps can be manipulated, expanded, printed, and downloaded.

To find out which maps are available in your state, click here.