The entire Sanborn map collection includes over 700,000 images documenting 12,000 cities across the United States and scattered across 50,000 separate volumes. “Sanborn” and “Sanborn Maps” are registered trademarks of The Sanborn Library, LLC.

In this collection, you’ll find a subset of the total collection, one that focuses specifically on images that include prominent typography.

It's a collection of almost 3,500 unique decorative titles drawn before 1923. While large portions of the original maps have been digitized and archived in various places both online and offline, there has never been a definitive collection of all of the decorative titles from the Sanborn maps. 

Some of the images are small titles that appeared on images of maps and in other cases, there are full-page titles that are much larger and more detailed. You can access & download any art from across the entire collection entirely for free and there are also some limited options to buy high-quality prints or even get some of the designs put on coffee mugs, sweaters or other merchandise. The main goal however is to simply make the title art more accessible. 

The only limitation to this collection (which will hopefully grow over time) is that it is limited to Sanborn volumes that have been digitized and that were made prior to 1923 and are therefore in the public domain. We hope you enjoy it!

For more online resources about the maps, including other digital collections and archives:

The definitive collection is in the Library of Congress, which has over 35,000 pages from Sanborn volumes from across the country

The second best resource is this guide to university collections across the country

BibliOdyssey: Link (the comments are particularly great)

University of Utah: Sanborn Maps

University of Georgia: Sanborn Maps

University of Wisconsin: Sanborn Maps

D-Lib Magazine: A history of the process of digitizing the maps

How to use the maps to research your family history

A tutorial on how to create your own Sanborn fonts

A rad skateboard that uses the San Francisco lettering

A link to an Etsy search of “Sanborn”

Sanborn maps on Ebay

“Sanborn” and “Sanborn Maps” are registered trademarks of The Sanborn Library, LLC.