by garciansmith
0 subcomment
- I spend a lot of time looking at Sanborn maps: they are an extremely useful resource any time you research the history of an urban area in the U.S. Even when in a boring place where you think you are pretty damn sure on how the buildings around you came to be, those maps might have a surprise for you. Recently I was researching a neighborhood that included a home that was was surely built c. 1900 due to its style and materials. Yet it didn't appear on a Sanborn map until after 1950: it was just an empty lot before that. Still haven't figured out where it was moved from, but it was definitely moved.
If you live in a U.S. city that has them, look up the maps of your neighborhood. You'll probably learn some fun stuff, maybe answer some weird question you've always wondered.
- Sanborn Maps was tied to Warren Buffett, where he once committed around a quarter of his partnership assets to it. Here is a Case Study for anyone interested: http://csinvesting.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/sanborn_ma...
- Good accompaniment to another article I enjoyed earlier this year, on the history of fire in the US:
'All That Is Solid Bursts into Flame: Capitalism and Fire in the Nineteenth-Century United States'
https://doi.org/10.1093/pastj/gtad019
by aaronharnly
0 subcomment
- Great article! A searchable collection of the maps is in the Library of Congress:
https://www.loc.gov/collections/sanborn-maps/?searchType=adv...
- The graphic design from the old Sanborn maps for the city name are really something.
- The maps are beautiful.
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