HISTORIC CITY MAPS
From shortly after the Civil War up until well into the third quarter of the 20th century, the Sanborn Map and Publishing Company produced the now famous Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps™ that documented both growth and change within American cities. Besides being beautiful in their own right, the maps offer a treasure trove of historical information, a windfall that researchers will benefit from for years to come.
The maps include detailed portrayal of street, sidewalk and lot lines; they depict building placement, size (height), shape and materials of construction; and they often describe what type of business was located in particular buildings.
Environmental Data Resources Inc. currently markets maps in the collection of the Sanborn Library, LLC, which owns the largest and most complete collection (over 1.2 million) of these historical maps. Many of the maps are still copyrighted; however, with the passage of time, some of the maps have come into the public domain.
All of the area that falls within the proposed Ravenswood Historical District appears on the maps. We are offering links to the maps of Ravenswood that are in the public domain in the hope that we will be contacted by current or former residents that can offer additional information about businesses and homes that are in the proposed historical district.
The original maps were completed with hand-applied color-coding. We can only offer the scanned “black and white” versions here. If you would like to see an example of the original color versions, Click On This Link.
Click on a link in the table to the left to view the maps of Ravenswood.
HISTORIC VICINITY MAPS
In March 1879 the United States Geological Survey was established. The Survey was placed in the Department of the Interior and its goal was, "classification of the public lands, and examination of the geological structure, mineral resources, and products of the national domain.”
The Survey created its first topographic map in 1879 and began to map out the topographic atlas of the entire United States in 1882.
Topographic maps are among the most widely used maps. Topographic maps include contour lines that portray the shape and elevation of the land. Thus, using a two-dimensional surface, a topographic map can depict the three-dimensional ups and downs of the mapped terrain.
The maps we are including depict the Ravenswood vicinity in 1908 and 1928. They depict both natural and manmade (e.g., roads, boundaries, larger buildings) features. They show and name works of nature including mountains, valleys, plains, lakes, rivers, and vegetation.
The maps that we are presenting here, and nearly 2000 other USGS topographic maps, are available on the Maptech website. The collection of historic USGS topographic maps is part of an ongoing project that is lead by historian Christopher Marshall. Click Here to learn more about the effort to expand the map collection. If you would like to help expand the map collection, contact Chris Marshall through Maptech's e-mail address: sales@maptech.com.
Click on a link in the table to the left to view the maps of the Ravenswood vicinity.
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