Skip to Main Content
Hours & Login Menu
  • Hours
  • Login
    • Library Search Login
    • Interlibrary Loan
Dartmouth Libraries Dartmouth Libraries

Global dropdown menu

    • Borrow and Request
      • Who Can Borrow
      • What You Can Borrow
      • Loan Periods and Renewals
      • Borrow from Other Libraries
      • Request Materials
      • All Borrow and Request
    • Collections
      • Digital Collections
      • Media Collections
      • Oral Histories
      • Collections Care
      • Donate
      • All Collections
    • Course Reserves
      • Find Course Reserves
      • Create or Add Course Reserves
      • All Course Reserves
    • Off-Campus Access
    • Records Management
      • Retention and Disposition
      • Confidential Monthly Destruction
      • Electronic Records
      • Physical Records
      • Retention Schedules
      • All Records Management
    • Search and Browse
      • Library Search
      • Databases
      • Journals
      • Research Guides
      • Maps and Atlases
      • Newspapers
      • Dartmouth Digital Commons
      • Music Scores
      • BorrowDirect
      • Archives and Manuscripts
      • All Search and Browse
    • Design and Produce
      • Audio and Video
      • Book Arts
      • Digital Art and Design
      • Equipment and Hardware
      • Software
      • All Design and Produce
    • Data Services
      • Research Data Management
      • Data Analysis and Visualization
      • Data Repositories
      • Data Workshops
      • Datasets at Dartmouth
      • All Data Services
    • Digital Scholarship
    • Publishing and Copyright
      • Copyright
      • Open Access
      • Publisher Agreements
      • Publishing for Faculty
      • Publishing for Students
      • All Publishing and Copyright
    • Research Help
    • Teaching and Workshops
    • Print, Copy, Scan
    • Locations
      • Baker-Berry Library
      • Book Arts Workshop
      • Evans Map Room
      • Feldberg Business and Engineering Library
      • Health Sciences and Biomedical Libraries
      • Jones Media Center
      • Library Collections and Services Facility
      • Rauner Special Collections Library
      • Sherman Art Library
      • All Locations
    • Accessibility
    • Events
    • Exhibits
    • Hours
    • Study Spaces
    • About Dartmouth Libraries
      • Council on the Libraries
      • Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
      • Friends of the Libraries
      • Library Departments
      • Strategic Framework
      • Staff Directory
      • All About Dartmouth Libraries
    • Employment
      • Staff and Professional Positions
      • Student Positions
      • Fellowships
      • All Employment
    • News and Highlights
    • Policies and Guidelines
    • Programs and Awards
      • Alumni Memorial Book Fund Program
      • Librarians Active Learning Institute
      • MAD Research Video Contest
      • Staff Awards
      • All Programs and Awards
    • Contact Us
    • We're Here to Help
      • Students
      • Faculty
      • Alums
      • Staff
      • Visiting Researchers and Community
      • All We're Here to Help
    • Find a Specialist
      • Subject Librarians
      • Audio and Video Production
      • Preservation and Emergency Preparedness
      • Publishing and Copyright
      • Records Management
      • Research Data Services
      • Systematic Review
      • All Find a Specialist
    • Ask Us
  • Hours
    • Library Search Login
    • Interlibrary Loan

Global dropdown menu

    • Borrow and Request
      • Who Can Borrow
      • What Can You Borrow
      • Loan Periods and Renewals
      • Borrow from Other Libraries
      • Request Materials
    • Collections
      • Digital Collections
      • Media Collections
      • Oral Histories
      • Collections Care
      • Donate
    • Course Reserves
      • Find Course Reserves
      • Create or Add Course Reserves
    • Off-Campus Access
    • Records Management
      • Retention and Disposition
      • Confidential Monthly Destruction
      • Electronic Records
      • Physical Records
      • Retention Schedules
    • Search and Browse
      • Library Search
      • Databases
      • Journals
      • Research Guides
      • Maps and Atlases
      • Newspapers
      • Dartmouth Digital Commons
      • Music Scores
      • BorrowDirect
      • Archives and Manuscripts
    • Design and Produce
      • Audio and Video
      • Book Arts
      • Design and Digital Art
      • Equipment and Hardware
      • Software
    • Data Services
      • Research Data Management
      • Data Analysis and Visualization
      • Data Repositories
      • Data Workshops
      • Datasets at Dartmouth
    • Digital Scholarship
    • Publishing and Copyright
      • Copyright
      • Open Access
      • Publisher Agreements
      • Publishing for Faculty
      • Publishing for Students
    • Research Help
    • Teaching and Workshops
    • Print, Copy, Scan
    • Locations
      • Baker-Berry Library
      • Book Arts Workshop
      • Evans Map Room
      • Feldberg Business and Engineering Library
      • Health Sciences and Biomedical Libraries
      • Jones Media Center
      • Library Collections and Services Facility
      • Rauner Special Collections Library
      • Sherman Art Library
    • Accessibility
    • Events
    • Exhibits
    • Hours
    • Study Spaces
    • About Dartmouth Libraries
      • Council on the Libraries
      • Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
      • Friends of the Libraries
      • Library Departments
      • Strategic Framework
      • Staff Directory
    • Employment
      • Staff and Professional Positions
      • Student Positions
      • Fellowships
    • News and Highlights
    • Policies
    • Programs and Awards
      • Alumni Memorial Book Fund Program
      • Librarians Active Learning Institute
      • MAD Research Video Contest
      • Staff Awards
    • Contact Us
    • We're Here to Help
      • Students
      • Faculty
      • Alums
      • Staff
      • Visiting Researchers and Community
    • Find a Specialist
      • Subject Librarians
      • Audio and Video Production
      • Preservation and Emergency Preparedness
      • Publishing and Copyright
      • Records Management
      • Research Data Services
      • Systematic Review
    • Ask Us
  • Hours
    • Library Search Login
    • Interlibrary Loan
  1. Dartmouth Libraries
  2. Research Guides
  3. Dartmouth Libraries Guides
  4. Maps Online
  5. Fire insurance maps

Maps Online

This research guide will point you to digital maps within the Library's collections and online. These resources are a combination of subscriptions and those freely available on the internet.
  • Introduction
  • Understanding maps
  • Topographic maps
  • Library resources for digital maps
  • Find maps online
    • Online maps for NH, VT, ME & U.S.
  • Find outline maps
  • Fire insurance maps
  • Redlining maps
  • Census maps
  • Geologic mapping
  • History through Maps
  • Environmental mapping
  • Map humor
  • Evans Map Room
  • Web mapping
  • Google Earth & Maps
  • Digital Mapping
  • Map mashups
  • Cartography
  • Scholarly communication This link opens in a new window

Map Librarian

Profile Photo
Lucinda M. Hall
Email Me
Contact:
Evans Map Room, Baker-Berry Library
Dartmouth College
25 N Main ST
Hanover, NH 03755
(603) 646-0962
Website Skype Contact: d1128r8@kiewit.dartmouth.edu
Social: LinkedIn Page LibraryThing Page
Subjects: Film and Media Studies, Geography, Polar Studies

Map collections

This box has the records for New Hampshire and Vermont. For other states, see the box above.

  • Sanborn fire insurance maps. New Hampshire by Sanborn Map Company
    • Database
    • Link
    Call Number: Electronic resource
    Digital version of the Sanborn maps for New Hampshire.
  • Sanborn fire insurance maps. Vermont, 1867-1950 by Sanborn Map Company
    Call Number: Library Depository #4499r
    Reel 1. Bethel. Bradford. (2 pts.) -- Reel 2. Chester. Fairlee. Hartland. (3 pts.) -- Reel 3. Ludlow -- Reel 4. Randolph. Rochester (2 pts.) -- Reel 5. South Royalton. Springfield. Wells River. West Randolph. White River Junction. Windsor. Woodstock (7 pts.)

Map collections

The digital Sanborn collections that various libraries have put online only cover maps published before 1923. Any map published 1923 or after is still in copyright and they are unable to put a digital version online.

  • Alabama - historical fire insurance maps of Alabama by Sanborn Map Company; University of Alabama
    • Link
    Call Number: Online resource
    You need a specific plug-in to view these Sanborns.
  • Alaska - historical fire insurance maps of Alaska by Sanborn Map Company; Library of Congress
    • Link
    Call Number: Online resource
    Online maps available through the Library of Congress.
  • District of Columbia - historical fire insurance maps of the District of Columbia by Sanborn Map Company; Library of Congress
    • Link
    Call Number: Online resource
    Maps available through the Library of Congress.
  • Florida - historical fire insurance maps of Florida by Sanborn Map Company; University of Florida
    • Link
    Call Number: Electronic resource
    This is a collection of more than 3,000 map sheets for the state of Florida. The maps were designed to help fire insurance agents determine the degree of damage to a property and show accurate information to determine risks and establish premiums. They show the size (including color-coding), shape and construction of buildings (brick, adobe, frame, etc), dwellings (including hotels and churches), and other structures such as bridges, docks and barns.
  • Georgia - historical fire insurance maps for Georgia towns and cities, 1884-1941 by Sanborn Map Company; Digital Library of Georgia
    • Link
    Call Number: Online resource
    Fire insurance maps of Georgia cities and towns dating from 1884 to 1941.
  • Missouri - historical fire insurance maps of Missouri cities by Sanborn Map Company; University of Missouri
    • Link
    Call Number: Online resources
    Documenting the layout of 390 Missouri cities from 1883 to 1951, the 1283 maps in the collection are an invaluable research tool for urban historians, architectural historians, environmentalists, genealogists and preservationists. ...
  • North Carolina - historical fire insurance maps of North Carolina by Sanborn Map Company; UNC-Chapel Hill
    • Link
    Call Number: Online resource
    UNC-Chapel Hill hold the most comprehensive collection of North Carolina Sanborn maps. The dates range from the 1880's through 1922 online. The physical collection goes to the 1950's.
  • Pennsylvania - historical fire insurance maps of Pennsylvania by Sanborn Map Company; Pennsylvania State University
    • Link
    Call Number: Online resource
    The University Libraries' Donald W. Hamer Center for Maps and Geospatial Information has a near complete collection of Sanborn Fire Insurance maps for the state of Pennsylvania. The digital collection will continue to grow as maps come out of copyright.
  • South Carolina - historical fire insurance maps of South Carolina by Sanborn Map Company; University of South Carolina Libraries
    • Link
    Call Number: Online resource
    Originally conceived in the late 18th Century, fire insurance maps provided structural and urban environmental information necessary for insurance underwriters. ...
  • Texas - historical fire insurance maps of Texas by Sanborn Map Company; University of Texas
    • Link
    Call Number: Online resource
  • Utah - historical fire insurance maps of Utah by Sanborn Map Company; University of Utah
    • Link
    Call Number: Online resource
    This collection contains large-scale, detailed maps from 1867 into the early 20th century depicting the commercial, industrial, and residential sections of many Utah cities. ...
  • Wisconsin - historical fire insurance maps of Wisconsin by Sanborn Map Company; Wisconsin Historical Society
    • Link
    Call Number: Online resource
    The Society's Archives has original Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps for 325 Wisconsin communities. ...

Sanborn collection covering the entire United States mapped

  • United States - Sanborn Maps from the Library of Congress by Sanborn Map Company/Library of Congress
    • Link
    Call Number: Online resource
    The Sanborn maps are arranged by state, then city and release data. Currently there are over 25,000 sheets from over 3000 city sets online in the following states: AK, AL, AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, DE, GA, ID, IL, IN, KY, LA, MA, MD, ME, MI, MO, MS, NC, ND, NE, NH, NJ, NV, OH, OK, PA, SD, TX, VA, VT, WY and Canada, Mexico, Cuba sugar warehouses, and U.S. whiskey warehouses. This digital collection is courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Other Fire insurance mapping companies

  • Dakin Fire Insurance Maps
    • Link
    The production of fire insurance plans of North American cities was dominated by two companies, the Sanborn Map Company of New York and the Charles E. Goad Company of London. The stories of other publishers, for the most part, have not been adequately told. The West, includ[ing] Hawaii, had a number of individuals and institutions which produced insurance plans. One of the more successful of them was the Dakin Publishing Company of San Francisco. Dakin was in existence from about 1885 until the early 1960's, and actively produced insurance maps from its beginning until the second decade of the 20th Century.
  • Sanborn Map Company
    • Link
    The company famous for its insurance mapping.

Fire Insurance Maps for Vermont

  • Fire Insurance Maps of Vermont
    • Link
    This collection contains large-scale maps of Vermont villages and cities produced to give fire insurance companies and underwriters accurate information about insured properties. The collection currently includes maps of communities in Chittenden and Franklin Counties that were published from 1869 to 1922. Maps from other Vermont communities will be added in the future. ...

Selected book titles for fire insurance mapping

  • Resource logo Sanborn fire insurance maps online checklist by Geography & Map Reading Room, Library of Congress
    • Open Access Icon
    • Database
    Call Number: Online resource
    The Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps Online Checklist is a searchable database of the fire insurance maps published by the Sanborn Map Company housed in the collections of the Geography and Map Division. The online checklist is based upon the Library's 1981 publication Fire Insurance Maps in the Library of Congress and will be continually updated to reflect new acquisitions.
    Print copy in the Evans Map Room.
  • Union list of Sanborn fire insurance maps held by institutions in the United States and Canada by R. Philip Hoehn
    • Book
    Call Number: Baker-Berry Evans Map Room Z 6026 .I7 H63 v. 1 - 2
    This 2 volume union list contains the names of every city and town which the Sanborn Company mapped and in whose collections the maps reside.
  • Catalogue of Canadian fire insurance plans, 1875-1975 by Lorraine Dubreuil, Cheryl A. Woods.
    • Book
    Call Number: Baker-Berry Evans Map Room GA 471 .O33 no.6
    ISBN: 9780969506270
    This catalogue lists all the Canadian towns and cities mapped and in whose collections the maps reside throughout the Canadian provinces.
  • Default blue book cover Fire insurance maps: their history and applications by Diane L. Oswald
    • Book
    Call Number: Baker-Berry Evans Map Room HG 9771 .O89 1997
    ISBN: 9780965969802
    A short history of fire insurance maps in the United States.

Fire insurance maps for England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland

  • Fire insurance maps and plans from The British Library
    • Link
    Goad fire insurance plans are unique primary source materials capturing what is, in many cases, otherwise undocumented information about buildings, land use and urban design. This collection of Goad plans of the British Isles are the very first editions of this mapping, representing all of the major centres of population at the turn of the twentieth century; publication dates range from 1886 to 1930.
  • Curator's note for Goad's Fire Insurance Maps
    • Link
    ... While not the first to produce maps to aid insurance companies in assessing fire risks, the Chas E Goad Co was the largest and most prolific such endeavor in Britain. The large-scale plans of urban areas – which ranged in size from eight sheets for Dover and over 500 for London – includes footprints and addresses for each building, with its use (commercial, residential, educational etc.) and the height of the building. ...

Internet resource(s)

  • Fire Insurance Map: American Treasures of the Library of Congress
    • Link
    The O.K. Corral, where the notorious gunfight between the Earp brothers and Doc Holliday versus the Clanton gang took place October 26, 1881, is shown (between 3rd and 4th Streets, bounded by Fremont on the north and Allen on the south) in this 1886 fire insurance map of Tombstone, Arizona. ...
    more... less...
    This map is one of over 700,000 fire insurance map sheets produced by the Sanborn Map Company for more than twelve thousand American cities and towns from the 1870s until the 1950s. These maps were prepared primarily to assist insurance underwriters in determining the risk involved in insuring individual properties.
  • Sanborn Maps from Wikipedia
    • Link
    Sanborn Maps was a creator and publisher of maps of US cities and towns. The Sanborn Maps were originally created for assessing fire insurance liability in urbanized areas in the United States. The maps include detailed information about buildings in approximately 12,000 US towns and cities.
  • << Previous: Find outline maps
  • Next: Redlining maps >>
  • Last Updated: May 27, 2025 3:32 PM
  • URL: https://researchguides.dartmouth.edu/mapsonline
  • Print Page
Login to LibApps
Report a problem
Tags: fire insurance maps, redlining, sanborn maps, Social Sciences

Dartmouth Libraries

  • Baker-Berry Library
    • Book Arts Workshop
    • Evans Map Room
    • Jones Media Center
  • Health Sciences and Biomedical Libraries
  • Feldberg Business & Engineering Library
  • Rauner Special Collections Library
  • Records Management
  • Sherman Art Library

About Us

  • Staff Directory
  • Subject Librarians
  • Library Departments
  • Policies
  • Employment
  • Accessibility
  • Federal Depository Library

Contact Us

  • 25 North Main Street
    Hanover, NH, USA 03755
  • Phone: 603-646-2567
  • Contact Us

Give Us Feedback

Dartmouth Libraries

Footer copyright

  • Dartmouth College
  • Copyright © 2025 Trustees of Dartmouth College
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • YouTube
Privacy Policy