OldInsuranceMaps.net
A crowdsourcing site for creating and viewing georeferenced mosaics of historical fire insurance maps from the Library of Congress. See how it works or visit the about or FAQ pages to learn more.
Explore georeferenced maps from 291 locations...
Click a point to access maps of that locale, or search by place name.
Newsletter
How it Works
Digital scans of Sanborn maps are available through the Library of Congress and are pulled into this site through the LOC JSON API , generating a "Map Summary" page (Baton Rouge, 1885).
Users prepare each sheet in the volume, sometimes splitting it into multiple documents, each to be georeferenced individually (Baton Rouge, 1885, page 1).
Next, each document must be georeferenced by creating ground control points, linking features on the old map with latitude/longitude coordinates to create a geospatial layer (Baton Rouge, 1885, page 1, part 3).
As they are georeferenced, layers slowly build a collage of all the content from a given volume, and their overlapping margins must be trimmed to create a seamless mosaic.
Finally, all volume mosaics for a given locale are automatically aggregated into a simple web viewer so you can easily compare different years and current maps (Baton Rouge viewer).
Want to learn more? Visit the documentation site .
Latest activity
Activity by sessions
When users complete a step in the georeferencing process, it is stored as a session, either a Prep (preparation) session or Georef (georeferencing) session. (For now, MultiMask trimming is not stored in sessions.)
Each session is performed on a specific resource (document, region, or layer) within a map.
This panel allows you to view all sessions that have been performed on OldInsuranceMaps.net since the project began in early 2022. You can filter by map, type, date range, and/or username to get a more specific picture of work completed.
Note that this session list appears in more than one place across the platform, so some filter methods and columns are hidden in certain contexts where they would be redundant.
If you are looking for a list of the most recently added items (volumes), go to the items page and sort the table by Load date.
OldInsuranceMaps.net is funded in part by the National Institutes of Health (National Institute on Aging: R01AG080401) through a partnership with University of Michigan Institute for Social Research, University of Richmond Digital Scholarship Lab, and the National Community Reinvestment Coalition. Read more in the ISR press release.
We have also worked in partnership with OpenHistoricalMap, HistoryForge, Midlo Center for New Orleans Studies, The Ohio State University Libraries, and numerous other individuals who have found this while on their own quest to georeference Sanborn Maps.
A special thanks also to those who have donated: Kevin H., Andrew M., Peter M., Pete Z., and Chris P.
To donate: paypal.me/oldinsurancemaps