Project Background
The first iteration of OldInsuranceMaps.net was made publicly available as LaHMG (Louisiana Historical Map Georeferencer) in early 2022 through a four-month pilot project, focusing on maps of Louisiana. This work formed the bulk my master's thesis at Louisiana State University: "Creating a Public Space for Georeferencing Sanborn Maps: A Louisiana Case Study".
Since then, I have worked hard to refactor, restructure, and streamline the platform, into what is now just called OldInsuranceMaps.net (I had hoped for a better name but one has yet to come along...). I am also slowly spinning out the software into a more generic georeferencing app called OHMG (Online Historical Map Georeferencer), because a lot of characteristics of what I had to build to facilitate crowdsourcing for this particular map collection can be applied to other georeferencing work as well.
Acknowledgments
The platform is built from many different open source software components, and would not exist without all the hard work of the folks behind:
- Django
- OpenLayers & ol-ext
- Svelte
- GDAL
- TiTiler
- GeoNode (though no longer part of the codebase, GeoNode was the foundation of OldInsuranceMaps.net in its first iteration).
A special shoutout to other web georeferencing apps that have been inspirational through this development process: MapWarper, Allmaps, Virtuelles KartenForum, and Georeferencer.
I'd also like to acknowledge Historical Information Gatherers for carrying out the massive scanning effort that created the digital collection that OldInsuranceMaps.net is based on.
Credits
Software design and development: Adam Cox
Icons & Logo: Alex Muravev (via Noun Project), Phosphor Icons
All maps on OldInsuranceMaps.net are in the Public Domain, pulled from the Library of Congress Sanborn Map Collection.
All georeferencing work performed by our contributors. For each volume, a list of contributors appears at the bottom of the summary page.