Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps
Sanborn Insurance was an American publisher of historical and current maps of US cities and towns. Originally conceived in the late 18th Century, fire insurance maps provided structural and urban environmental information necessary for insurance underwriters. The maps are now frequently used for historical research and for preservation or restoration efforts. Special Collections and the SC Historical Society hold Sanborn Fire Insurance maps in physical form with overlays of updates of maps and indexes pasted in contemporaneously.
Over 2,000 maps of over eighty cities in South Carolina from 1884-1923 are available online through the University of South Carolina’s digital collections at https://digital.library.sc.edu/collections/sanborn-fire-insurance-maps-of-south-carolina/
The Library of Congress has a complete list of all Sanborn fire Insurance maps published for Charleston and for South Carolina.
