Thu 01 Sep
2011
Sanborn Insurance Maps of New York City
Designer Christian Annyas became intrigued by the ornate illustrative typography of the Sanborn Fire Insurance Company’s maps of New York City, and so he dug up samples from various libraries and universities. These are stunningly intricate. Here are two of my favorites.
This one covers the borough of Richmond, which was the original name for Staten Island.
See all of the maps that Annyas found at this blog post.
Remarks 4 total remarks were added before the post was closed.
06 Sep 2011, 08:37 am
Love these. I’ve used the old Kansas City Sanborn maps online for researching my wife and I’s old house:
The Missouri Valley Special Collections has 19 bound volumes of Kansas City Sanborn maps, which have been digitized, and some Kansas City volumes and selected Missouri cities on microfilm.
They’re gorgeous! I love how they look 3D as well. And even though they’re old school, they’d work well today. Thanks Khoi! You always share some awesome stuff!
Typical Victorian stuff, nice if you like that kind of thing.
The insurance maps themselves are fantastic resources for urban history, often available from city archives.