The Genealogy Department recently accepted the donation of a three-volume set of the Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps of Shreveport. Genealogists and local historians have long known the importance of the Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps in the documentation of homes and buildings in towns of all sizes across America.
The LSU-Shreveport Archives donated three volumes of Sanborn maps for Shreveport covering the period of 1935 to 1963. Each volume covers a different geographical portion of Shreveport.
Many of these maps are available at Digital Sanborn Maps, but many researchers have never seen an original Sanborn Map book. Researchers can consult the Sanborn Maps for Shreveport on microfilm in the Genealogy Department. These microfilmed maps trace the development of Shreveport through editions of 1885, 1890, 1896, 1899, 1904, 1909, 1921, and 1935 (with revisions in 1944 and 1963).
Revisions were drawn, cut and pasted into existing books to keep them up to date. Though the pages are yellowed, warped, and worn, the maps retain all of their detail and much of their attractive pastel coloring. The bound maps give much fuller detail and context than the best reproductions, which are often piecemeal, black and white, or improperly scaled.
The Sanborn maps are excellent, incomparable sources, whether patrons wish to investigate the history of their Shreveport homes, to research a historic Shreveport building or business, or to trace the development of Shreveport. For more information on the Sanborn Maps, you can visit the Sanborn Map Wikipedia page.
(Pictured: (L-R) Library patron Jim Johnson, Lise’ Taylor, and Joe Slattery display one of the three volumes of Sanborn Maps for Shreveport that are now available in the Genealogy Department.)