Sanborn maps applies to jurisdiction United States of America
History
In the late 18th century, insurance companies in London began to create detailed maps to give underwriters the information they needed to assess fire risk.  The practice was adopted by American insurance companies in the mid-19th century.  Demand for fire insurance mapping grew rapidly after the end of the Civil War.  Factors such as the Homestead Act, railroad construction, the Second Industrial Revolution and massive immigration to the United States all fostered huge population growths, urbanization, and heightened demand for mapping.
Daniel Alfred Sanborn, a civil engineer and surveyor, began working on fire insurance maps in 1866. That year, he was contracted by the Aetna Insurance Company to prepare maps of areas in Tennessee. About the same time, he developed similar maps of Boston, published as Insurance Map of Boston, Volume 1, 1867. Seeing a lucrative market for this type of map, he established the D. A. Sanborn National Insurance Diagram Bureau in New York City to publish the Boston atlas and develop and sell maps of additional areas.Within several decades, the company became the largest and most successful American map company. This growth came about through savvy management and the buyout of competing firms. In 1889 Sanborn acquired Perris and Browne, an older firm, and can by virtue of this expansion date its origins to 1852. The firm name established by Sanborn in 1867 was changed in 1876 when the firm was incorporated under the name Sanborn Map and Publishing Company, which then became the Sanborn-Perris Map Company, Ltd. until 1902, when the name was shortened to the Sanborn Map Company.In 1916, Sanborn purchased its last major competitor, the E. Hexamer & Sons of Philadelphia, and became a monopoly.  Company headquarters moved to 629 Fifth Avenue in northern Pelham, New York, but there were also regional offices in San Francisco, Chicago, and Atlanta. The Sanborn Company sent out legions of surveyors to map building footprints in all major urbanized areas, along with building details related to fire risk.  At its peak in the 1920s, the company employed about 700 people, including about 300 field surveyors and 400 cartographers, printers, managers, salesmen, and support staff.  Areas under intensive development were surveyed every six months.
Sanborn's monopoly was resented by some insurance companies for its high cost.  The Underwriter's Association of the Pacific complained that an "Eastern monopoly" was giving service that was "very slow, expensive, and generally unsatisfactory."  In the 1910s, the National Board of Fire Underwriters investigated the possibility of creating its own maps.  However, many insurance companies opposed the proposal, citing the "very large expenditure" required and their satisfaction with Sanborn's "commendably satisfactory" service.  Instead, the NBFU Map Committee took an active role in Sanborn's operations.  In 1922, Sanborn agreed to add a member of the Map Committee to its Board of Directors, and a second seat was added by 1927.  However, the onset of the Great Depression greatly curtailed construction activity in the United States.  By 1936, Sanborn had reduced its publishing output from 60 to 20 volumes per year, a pace that would take over 50 years to update the entire map collection.Digital map collections
ProQuest Digital Sanborn Maps, 1867–1970 — pay site (free from some public and academic libraries)
Sanborn Maps, Environmental Data Resources — pay site
Sanborn Maps from over 15 states — Library of Congress
Sanborn Maps of Alabama, 1884–1950 — University of Alabama
Sanborn Maps of San Francisco, California, 1900 — SF Genealogy
Sanborn Maps of San Francisco, California, 1905 — David Rumsey
Sanborn Maps of San Jose, California – San Jose Public Library – Digital Sanborn Fire Maps of San Jose available to library card holders
Sanborn Maps of Colorado, 1883–1922 — University of Colorado Digital Library
Sanborn Maps of Florida, 1860–1923 — University of Florida Library
Sanborn Maps of Georgia, 1884–1922 — Digital Library of Georgia
Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps of Illinois — University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Map Library
Sanborn Maps of Indianapolis, Indiana, 1887–1941 — IUPUI University Library
Sanborn Maps of Muncie, Indiana, 1883–1911 — Ball State University Library
Sanborn Maps of Kansas, 1883–1922 — University of Kansas Libraries
Sanborn Maps of Kentucky, 1884–1922 — Kentuckiana Digital Library
Sanborn Maps of Frankfort, Kentucky, 1907 — David Rumsey
Sanborn Maps of Hallowell, Maine, 1890 — David Rumsey
Sanborn Maps of Maine – University of Maine Fogler Library, Orono
Sanborn Maps of Missouri, 1883–1951 — University of Missouri
Sanborn Maps of St. Louis, Missouri, 1870–1904 — Washington University in St. Louis
Sanborn Maps of Nevada, 1879–1923 — University of Nevada, Reno
Sanborn Maps of New Jersey, 1884–1950 — Princeton University Library
Sanborn Maps of New Hampshire, 1880s–1940s — Dartmouth College Library
Insurance Maps of New York — New York Public Library
Sanborn Maps of North Carolina, 1884–1922 — University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Sanborn Maps of Cincinnati, Ohio — The Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County
Sanborn Maps of Toledo, Ohio, 1902 — Toledo's Attic
Sanborn Maps of Pennsylvania, 1884–1958 — Pennsylvania State University Libraries
Sanborn Maps of Texas, 1877–1922 — University of Texas Libraries
Sanborn Maps of South Carolina, 1884–1960 — University of South Carolina Library
Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps at University of Utah Digital Library, Marriott Library Special Collections
Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps of Wisconsin Communities – Wisconsin Historical Society
Sanborn Maps of Kenosha, Wisconsin, 1918 — UW Milwaukee, AGS Library
Sanborn Maps of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 1894 and 1910 — UW Milwaukee, AGS Library