LibGuides: Digital Primary and Secondary Sources: Property Research

Digitized Maps and Guides

UofSC Digital Sanborn Maps Collection
Originally conceived in the late 18th Century, fire insurance maps provided structural and urban environmental information necessary for insurance underwriters. Founded in 1867 in the United States, the Sanborn National Insurance Diagram Bureau systematically produced ascetically appealing, but also efficient, maps nationwide.
Library of Congress Digital Sanborn Map Collection
The Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps Online Checklist provides a searchable database of the fire insurance maps published by the Sanborn Map Company housed in the collections of the Geography and Map Division. The online checklist is based upon the Library's 1981 publication Fire Insurance Maps in the Library of Congress and will be continually updated to reflect new acquisitions.
Charleston Library Society City Directories
Includes 1782, 1785, 1790, and 1801 Charleston City Directories
Archives.org Charleston City Directory- 1852
Searchable digitized 1852 Charleston City Directory

Subject Specific Databases

Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps

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.

Published Resources

" This is Charleston; a survey of the architectural heritage of a unique American city," Samuel Gaillard Stoney
Includes photographs and information on historic Charleston properties, primarily downtown

Slavery in the City by Clifton Ellis (Editor); Rebecca Ginsburg (Editor)
Countering the widespread misconception that slavery existed only on plantations, and that urban areas were immune from its impacts, Slavery in the City is the first volume to deal exclusively with the impact of North American slavery on urban design and city life during the antebellum period.

"Examples of Colonial Architecture in South Carolina and Georgia: Charleston, S. C., and Savannah, Ga.," by Edward A. Crane and E. E. Soderholtz
Includes images and information of well-known historic Charleston buildings

Highlight: Albert Simons Papers, 1908-1977

Albert Simons Papers, 1908-1977
Sketches of buildings and architectural features in Europe, Maryland, Turkey, Italy, Greece, France, South Carolina, and Spain, by Charleston architect Albert Simons. Also included are sketches during his military service in Europe during World War I. The images depict buildings of France, and soldiers and civilians of many nationalities.