A Brief History of the Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps and the Sanborn Map Company
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- The History of the Fire Insurance Map Making Industry
- The Beginning of the Sanborn Map Company
- The Company after the Death of D.A. Sanborn
- The Sanborn Map Company from the Great Depression to the Present
- Relevance of the Sanborn Maps
- Other Fire Insurance Map Making Companies Through History
- Bibliography
- Endnotes
- Additional Information and Links
I. Introduction
The Sanborn Map Company played an important role in the history and development of American fire insurance map making and underwriting, as well as providing other agencies with a detailed understanding of the physical make-up of over 12,000 U.S. cities and towns. Resulting from the need for better fire insurance coverage during the Industrial Revolution, the Sanborn Map Company eventually set the standard for fire insurance maps. The company dominated the market, despite several set backs, until the mid twentieth century. When the fire insurance industry underwent serious changes in the 1960s, the company struggled; however by the 1970s, the Sanborn Map Company emerged again as a company devoted to the new technological trends in map making.
II. The History of the Fire Insurance Map Making Industry
The history of fire insurance map making developed as part of the Industrial Revolution in Britain, crossed the Atlantic to the American Colonies, and eventually became an American industry by the mid nineteenth century. During the Industrial Revolution, fire insurance underwriters and business owners alike relied on fire insurance maps to protect their businesses.¹ The maps allowed underwriters to more accurately access the risks of a business, even if they were unable to inspect the property in person, protecting the insurance company from a premium set too low and risking too much liability. On the other hand, the maps protected the business from a premium being set too high.² The maps protected both groups from major financial loss.
Before 1812, the major fire insurance companies and map makers were British; however, the tensions between Britain and the United States, from the Revolutionary War through the War of 1812, gave rise to American fire insurance map making.³ The first American fire insurance maps were created by Edmund Petrie of Charleston, South Carolina. Petrie, tasked by the British Phoenix Assurance Company Ltd, published his map, Iconography of Charleston, South Carolina, in 1790.4 In it, Petrie included the residences, businesses, public buildings and streets which were a part of Charleston at the time.5 By the 1820's, as industrialization developed throughout the United States, small fire insurance companies emerged around major cities.6 As the fire insurance industry expanded in the U.S., it opened up a new world for young map makers, such as D.A. Sanborn.
III. The Beginning of the Sanborn Map Company
In the 1860s, a young surveyor from Massachusetts, named D.A. Sanborn became a part of the fire insurance map making industry and created a company that would last for over 150 years. In 1866, D.A. Sanborn was hired by J. B. Bennett of Aetna Insurance Company to do several maps.7 His first atlas, the Insurance Map of Boston, Volume 1, was published in 1867.8 The atlas had twenty-nine plates, each showing a part of Boston at a scale of fifty feet to an inch.9 Sanborn's map was so successful that he started his own map company, D.A. Sanborn National Insurance Diagram Bureau that same year. By the end of the next year, 1868, he had already mapped fifty U.S. cities and towns.10 That same year, he copyrighted his key, the Symbol Key of Construction Attributes, giving him an advantage in the market.11 In 1876, Sanborn opened a new office in New York City, expanded his work westward, and began pasting corrections on older maps.12 The year D.A. Sanborn died, 1883, the company began its first systematic registration of maps.13 After Sanborn's death, the D.A. Sanborn National Insurance Diagram Bureau merged with another company, Perris and Browne in 1889.14 Sanborn left behind a successful mapping company that would continue to thrive into the next century.
IV. The Company after the Death of D.A. Sanborn
Following the death of D.A. Sanborn, the company underwent a number of significant changes under its new leadership. The first change was one in name. In 1902, the company was officially named the Sanborn Map Company.15 The company expanded across the country, with three to four hundred map makers working anonymously in all states.16 In 1905, the Sanborn Map Company published a field guide for its map makers, known as the Surveyors Manual for the Exclusive Use and Guidance of Employees. This book was to ensure the maps created were accurate and met the high standards of the Sanborn Map Company.17 The company continued to make their maps at a scale of fifty feet to an inch on twenty-one by twenty-five inch sheets, which were lithographically printed and hand colored.18 By 1920, the Sanborn Map Company had a monopoly in the fire insurance map making industry; however, the stock market crash of 1929 changed the fate of the company forever.
V. The Sanborn Map Company from the Great Depression to the Present
During the Great Depression construction was halted in the beginning, and Sanborn's sales suffered. The Company moved into making lower cost maps and furthered their paste-on correction services.19 Unfortunately, the Second World War provided another problem for the Sanborn Map Company. During the War, heavy restrictions were placed on map making, so once again The Sanborn Map Company adjusted and made military maps to survive.20 Still, the company faced an economic and industrial lull. By the 1960's, the fire insurance industry was undergoing a number of changes, ending the use of fire insurance maps. In 1967, due to deteriorating business, the Sanborn Map Company limited its scope to revising existing maps.21 In 1970, the Sanborn Map Company leapt into the technological foreground and began making photogram metric maps and providing Geographic Information Services (GIS).22 In 1977, the President of the Sanborn Map Company offered its atlases to the Library of Congress, where the most complete collection is now housed.23 After suffering from a number of industrial and economic misfortunes, the Sanborn Map Company eventually managed to turn around, leaving behind the hand drawn maps which brought them into the industry, and moving into the advanced technological field map making is today.
VI. Relevance of the Sanborn Maps
The Sanborn Maps serve as more than maps of an area; they are relevant documents for a number of professional fields. Aside from fire insurance companies, the Sanborn Maps are useful to people involved in government, business, engineering, health and sanitation, planning and zoning, public works, tax assessment, education, highway development, public libraries, architects, geographers, environmentalists, water works, banking, mortgages, and life insurance, utilities and many other professional industries.24 Sanborn Maps also serve as historical documents for cities and towns and are important to those involved in social history, local history, architectural history, genealogy, urban studies, and preservation.25 The detail provided by the Sanborn Maps about each city in terms of its physical make-up, as well as the infrastructure of each city or town, provides important insights into a locality for professionals of all sorts.
Other Fire Insurance Map Making Companies Through History26
- Jefferson Insurance Company (George T. Hope)
- Perris and Browne (The company Sanborn Map Company merged with)
- Hexamer and Locher (Ernest Hexamer: Baltimore, MD; Hexamer and Locher: Philadelphia, PA.; Later E. Hexamer and Son)
- Spielman and Brush (New Jersey)
- The Rascher Map Company (Midwest, later taken over by the Sanborn Map Company)
- The Whipple Agency (Midwest)
- The Dankin Map Company (California)
- Charles E. Goad (Canadian, International)
- The National Board of Fire Underwriters
Bibliography
- Digital Sanborn Maps. http://sanborn.umi.com. Internet Explorer, 9/9/05.
- Library of Congress. Fire Insurance Maps in the Library of Congress. Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 1981.
- Oswald, Diane L.. Fire Insurance Maps: Their History and Application. College Station, Texas: Lacewing Press, 1997.
- Sanborn Map Company. Description and Utilization of the Sanborn Map. Pelham, New York: Sanborn Map Company, 1949.
- Sanborn Map Company. http://www.sanborn.com. Internet Explorer, 9/9/05.
Endnotes
- Oswald, Diane L.. Fire Insurance Maps: Their History and Application. College Station, Texas: Lacewing Press, 1997.back
- Oswald, pp. 7.back
- Oswald, pp. 10.back
- Oswald, pp. 10.back
- Oswald, pp. 10.back
- Oswald, pp. 13.back
- Oswald, pp. 24.back
- Oswald, pp. 24.back
- Library of Congress. Fire Insurance Maps in the Library of Congress. Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 1981.back
- Oswald, pp. 24.back
- Oswald, pp. 24.back
- Oswald, pp. 24.back
- Library of Congress, pp. 5.back
- Oswald, pp. 24.back
- Library of Congress, pp. 5.back
- Library of Congress, pp. 5.back
- Library of Congress, pp. 5.back
- Library of Congress, pp. 5-6.back
- Library of Congress, pp. 6.back
- Library of Congress, pp. 6.back
- Library of Congress, pp. 8.back
- Sanborn Map Company. http://www.sanborn.com. Internet Explorer, 9/9/05.back
- Library of Congress, pp. 8.back
- Sanborn Map Company. Description and Utilization of the Sanborn Map. Pelham, New York: Sanborn Map Company, 1949.back
- Digital Sanborn Maps. http://sanborn.umi.com. Internet Explorer, 9/9/05.back
- Oswald, pp. 14-33.back
Additional Information and Links
