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The Penn State University Libraries is fortunate to be the home of one of the largest and most complete collections of Sanborn Fire Insurance maps of any state outside of the Library of Congress. The collection contains almost 31,ooo Sanborn Fire Insurance map sheets covering 570 towns in Pennsylvania. Ranging from 1884 to 1938 these fire insurance maps document the growth and development of Pennsylvanian’s urban area during a period of immense national growth. Penn State’s out-of-copyright collection has been digitized and is available freely, in color, online.
In the past several years, the Donald W. Hamer Maps Library has been creating innovative ways to utilize these Sanborn maps. These digital humanities projects bring the Sanborn Maps alive, making them relevant to 21st Century research.
Currently we have two projects which use the Sanborn Fire Insurance maps of State College, PA, including the Penn State University Park campus. The first project called State College Change Through Time shows how the extent of the mapped area changed over time, including land uses. The second project called State College Demographic Change Over Time maps where individuals lived in 1920 and 1930 using US Census data and student directories. To find these projects please use the “Projects” page.
For more information about finding and using Penn State’s Sanborn map collection use the Sanborn research guide; for more information about the sources and methods used in this project contact us at UL-Sanborn@lists.psu.edu