Material Detail

The Sanborn Maps Collection (https://www.loc.gov/collections/sanborn-maps) includes over 35,000 digitized fire insurance maps with detailed information about the layout of 12,000 US towns and cities, between 1867 and 1961. It is thus an ideal primary source collection for historians, genealogists, and other researchers interested in the changing landscape of US towns and cities in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, as well as librarians who serve these researchers.

This 10-minute, virtual lesson provides students in library and information sciences with a hands-on introduction to the history, organization, and possible uses of the Library of Congress's digitized Sanborn Maps Collection. It is primarily intended to introduce students to the online platform where the maps are housed and to spark a conversation about the organizational choices behind the collection and its search functions.

In this lesson, students will learn to:

• accurately identify the original purpose of the Sanborn Maps collection
• accurately identify additional uses for the Sanborn Maps collection
• experiment with the different filtering options available in the system
• successfully navigate the system to retrieve a unique map

Materials provided include a detailed lesson plan with discussion prompts, a poll, and a Powerpoint presentation with which to introduce the Sanborn Maps Collection.

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