The Sanborn Map Company was a publisher of detailed maps of U.S. cities and towns in the 19th and 20th centuries. The maps were originally created to allow fire insurance companies to assess their total liability in urbanized areas of the United States. Since they contain detailed information about properties and individual buildings in approximately 12,000 U.S. cities and towns, Sanborn maps are invaluable for documenting changes in the built environment of American cities over many decades
(source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanborn_Maps)
Researchers find Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps useful for locating the residences and workplaces of ancestors, understanding the significance and historical evolution of buildings, and seeing what their cities looked like in the past.
Although these maps were originally published in color, our collection is digitized from microfilm and is in black and white. You can access these historical maps of Ohio cities with a library card from an Ohio library.