ELWYN B. ROBINSON DEPARTMENT OF SPECIAL COLLECTIONS
CHESTER FRITZ LIBRARY
UNIVERSITY OF NORTH DAKOTA
GRAND FORKS, NORTH DAKOTA 58202

NORTH DAKOTA SANBORN FIRE INSURANCE MAP COLLECTION

COLLECTION :OGL # 1348

DATES: 1884-1969

SIZE: 47 folders, 1 microfilm reel

INTRODUCTION

ACQUISITION: The North Dakota Sanborn Fire Insurance Map Collection was a gift of the Library of Congress, shipped to the Chester Fritz Library in June 1960.

ACCESS: Open for inspection under the rules and regulations of the Department of Special Collections.

HISTORICAL SKETCH

The Sanborn Map Company began as the D.A. Sanborn National Insurance Diagram Bureau; D. A. Sanborn, a surveyor from Somerville, Massachusetts, founded the company in approximately 1867. (No official record of the first Sanborn map exists, but the earliest surviving one, housed in the Library of Congress, is dated 1867. It’s a fire insurance map of the city of Boston, Massachusetts.) The company was probably founded in New York City, as a New York address appears on the earliest surviving map. In 1876, it incorporated under the name Sanborn Map and Publishing Company. Sanborn died in 1883, although the corporation continued. His company took over Perris and Browne, another map company, in 1899 and became Sanborn Perris Map Company, Limited. By this time, most other insurance map publishers had either gone out of business or changed specializations, making Sanborn Perris the industry leader. In 1902, the firm again changed its name to Sanborn Map Company and has held this name to the present day.

Source: Ristow, Walter W. “U.S. Fire Insurance Maps, 1852-1968.” Surveying and Mapping, v. 30, March 1970.

SCOPE AND CONTENT NOTE

The North Dakota Sanborn Fire Insurance Map Collection contains Sanborn fire insurance maps for cities and towns in the state of North Dakota, spanning the years 1884-1969. The maps depict the arrangement of blocks and buildings for the given cities and towns. They provide locations of lot lines and detailed information on structures, including construction material, height and purpose (e.g. residence or business). If a building houses a business, the name of the business or the service that it provides are usually indicated.

Most maps in this collection are hard copies, but others are reproduced on one reel of microfilm. This microfilm reel is stored in Special Collections Family History/Genealogy Room. Hard copies are stored in numbered folders in the Special Collections map files. Below is a list of the Sanborn Maps, arranged alphabetically by North Dakota city or town. Folder numbers indicate the location of the hard copies. Microfilmed copies are designated with the phrase "Microfilm." Two 1927 maps of Grand Forks are bound volumes, and are housed in the same file drawers as all of other Grand Forks map folders.

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