The Sanborn Map Company began as the D.A. Sanborn National Insurance Diagram Bureau; D. A. Sanborn, a surveyor from Somerville, Massachusetts, founded the company in approximately 1867. (No official record of the first Sanborn map exists, but the earliest surviving one, housed in the Library of Congress, is dated 1867. It’s a fire insurance map of the city of Boston, Massachusetts.) The company was probably founded in New York City, as a New York address appears on the earliest surviving map. In 1876, it incorporated under the name Sanborn Map and Publishing Company. Sanborn died in 1883, although the corporation continued. His company took over Perris and Browne, another map company, in 1899 and became Sanborn Perris Map Company, Limited. By this time, most other insurance map publishers had either gone out of business or changed specializations, making Sanborn Perris the industry leader. In 1902, the firm again changed its name to Sanborn Map Company and has held this name to the present day.

Source: Ristow, Walter W. “U.S. Fire Insurance Maps, 1852-1968.” Surveying and Mapping, v. 30, March 1970.