Using Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps for Urban Historical Research and Reconstructions: A Review and Case Study

Sanborn fire insurance maps contain a wealth of information about the historical built environment for thousands of cities and towns across the United States. In combination with geographic information systems (GIS) and other computational approaches, Sanborn maps have been used for various purposes and across a broad range of academic disciplines. This paper begins with a literature review that highlights representative examples of the use of Sanborn maps for visualization, spatial analysis, and 3D modeling and reconstruction, and summarizes the current state of the art for preparing Sanborn maps for use in GIS and deriving data from them. Next, a case study is presented that integrates several of these methods, namely using data derived from Sanborn maps through semi-automated approaches to create realistic 3D models of Poindexter Village, Ohio’s first public housing development. The paper closes with a discussion of how demonstrated use cases of Sanborn maps relate to a “collections as data” framework and can inform future research directions for map and geography libraries. This work will benefit scholars using Sanborn maps to study diverse aspects of urban history, as well as the library professionals who curate physical and digital collections of historical maps to support such uses.