Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps of Richmond, Virginia available online from the Library of Congress

Image of from the Sanborn Fire Insurance Map of Richmond, 1905.

The Library of Congress has added several Sanborn Fire Insurance maps of Richmond to its online holdings. Including the years for 1886, 1895, 1905, 1908, 1919, 1925, 1950, and 1952. These are excellent sources of information to document Richmond history. They are often used to illustrate the many posts on Richmond buildings and their history by Steve Smith and his Rocket Werks site. Check that site out!

Here's the link to the Library of Congress Sanborn Maps of Richmond:

https://www.loc.gov/collections/sanborn-maps/?fa=location:virginia%7Clocation:richmond

Important information about their collection of Sanborn Maps and a Key to what you'll find on the maps is here: 

https://www.loc.gov/collections/sanborn-maps/about-this-collection/

This is how an article at Wikipedia describes the maps: 

"The Sanborn Map Company was a publisher of detailed maps of U.S. cities and towns in the 19th and 20th centuries. The maps were originally created to allow fire insurance companies to assess their total liability in urbanized areas of the United States. Since they contain detailed information about properties and individual buildings in approximately 12,000 U.S. cities and towns, Sanborn maps are invaluable for documenting changes in the built environment of American cities over many decades.

Sanborn held a monopoly over fire insurance maps for the majority of the 20th century, but the business declined as US insurance companies stopped using maps for underwriting in the 1960s. The last Sanborn fire maps were published on microfilm in 1977, but old Sanborn maps remain useful for historical research into urban geography. The Sanborn Map Company continues on as a geospatial solutions company."

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- Ray