Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps are historical tools for researching the history and growth of cities and towns. Originally created to determine fire hazard risk, they show information such as the outline of buildings, construction materials, function of structures, location of windows and doors. They also give street names, house and block numbers, and other information. Most places have maps from multiple years.
Fire Insurance Maps at the Library of Congress: A Resource Guide
Information about Sanborn fire insurance maps, and color images of maps
♦ Interpreting Sanborn Maps (including colors and symbols, publication dates, abbreviations)
Sanborn Maps California [Proquest]
Black & white images of Sanborn maps of California cities and towns
Licensed database: Fresno State login required.
Sanborn Fire Insurance Map Checklist -- Library of Congress
♦ California Cities and Towns
Open Access (no login required)
Links to color digitized maps, organized by country, state, and city, and then by date.
This collection is much wider geographically than the Proquest California database, but does not go up as far in publication dates.
"Not Available Online" means the volume is still under copyright protection and cannot be placed online
until the expiration of the copyright term.
Maps Service Desk (by appointment only: email Sam Hidde Tripp at hiddetripp@mail.fresnostate.edu )
Fresno California, including Malaga and Oleander 1967-1969. Sanborn Map Company.
Maps Desk f G 1528 .F8 S26 1967 (In-Library use only)
3 volumes in 6 binders; black & white; some pages missing
Map index of 1967-1969 Sanborn coverage for Fresno City
Paper Sanborns for California towns other than Fresno
Maps flat set G 4361 G475… (In-Library use only)
Tulare County: Dinuba, Exeter, Hanford, Lemoore, Orosi, Porterville, Terra Bella, Tipton, Traver, Tulare, Visalia
Kings County: Corcoran
Dates of specific towns & complete call numbers
These are black & white copies from microfilm.
Maps Microfilm
California maps Fresno, Madera, & Merced Co towns, 1885-1914 (Precise maps of old Western towns)
Maps microfilm WC 160
Insurance maps of Fresno County, CA (Sanborn Map Company)
Reproductions of insurance maps chiefly from the collections of California State University, Fresno Library,
Fresno County Public Library, and Kings County (Calif.) Library.
Maps microfilm WC 182 reels 1 – 11
Fresno County Sanborn Maps. Fresno County Public Library - Heritage Center
"The Heritage Center has copies of three original Sanborn atlases for Fresno proper, and microfilm copies of atlas plates for Fresno and other county cities and towns."
Heritage Center Contact Information, Location, and Hours