Title: North Dakota Sanborn Fire Insurance Map Collection, 1884-1960

ID: OGLMC1348

Primary Creator: Sanborn Map Company (1867-)

Extent: 56.0 Folders

Date Acquired: 00/00/1960

Subjects: Architecture and Historic Preservation, Maps

Languages: English

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.

Architecture and Historic Preservation
Maps

Repository: Elwyn B. Robinson Department of Special Collections

Access Restrictions: Open for inspection under the rules and regulations of the Elwyn B. Robinson Department of Special Collections.

Acquisition Method: The North Dakota Sanborn Fire Insurance Map Collection was donated by the Library of Congress in June 1960.

Preferred Citation: (Name and Date of Map). North Dakota Sanborn Fire Insurance Map Collection. OGLMC 1348. Elwyn B. Robinson Department of Special Collections, Chester Fritz Library, University of North Dakota.

Processing Information: Finding aid added to Archon in June 2019.