Guides: Philadelphia Neighborhood Research: URBS 210/ URBS 206: Maps & Photographs

Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps

The Sanborn Map Company helped fire insurance companies set rates in the late 19th and early 20th centuries with these detailed maps of each built structure, its use, dimensions, height, building material, and other relevant features (fire alarms, water mains and hydrants, for example).

Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps - Penn State University Libraries
For Philadelphia 1916-1921, digitized in full color. Use this Graphic Map to locate the volume number for your area of interest.
Digital Sanborn maps, 1867-1970. Pennsylvania
Same Philadelphia Sanborn Maps as Geo Edition, but lacking Google Maps interface. Includes Pennsylvania town outside of Philadelphia. Images downloadable as PDFs.
Sanborn Maps, Available Online / Library of Congress
Digitized Sanborn map sheets from the Library of Congress's comprehensive collection, 35,000+ images in full color.
Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps, Philadelphia
Guide to our microfilm collections.
ProQuest Sanborn Maps Geo Edition
This database was deactivated in Summer 2020.
Digitized Sanborn fire insurance maps for selected major US cities, including Philadelphia, New York City, Baltimore, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, Miami, Newark, Richmond, and Seattle. Downloadable images available as GeoTIFF suitable for GIS applications.

Other Historic Maps

Philadelphia Geohistory Network
Scanned historic maps from the Philadelphia Area Consortium of Special Collections Libraries.
DOR Historic Streets Index
Changes to the names of certain streets, alleys, and courts were first effected by an ordinance dated September 1, 1858. A provision of this ordinance was an alphabetical index of former names, together with the location of the street and the new name given to it. By an ordinance of February 23, 1897 names of intermediate streets were indexed by old name, location and new name.
Genealogy of Philadelphia County Subdivisions
Maps of Philadelphia wards as they've changed.
Social Base Map of Philadelphia
Council of Social Agencies and the Philadelphia Board of Education, 1939.
Digitized atlas of Philadelphia city blocks showing building outlines for social-use sites.
LOC American Memory: Cities and Towns
Historic maps digitized at the Library of Congress.

Photographs

PhillyHistory.org
Photographic images of Philadelphia from the Philadelphia City Archives, which holds approximately 2 million photos dating from the late 1800s, as well as the Athenaeum of Philadelphia.
Philadelphia Architects and Buildings
Authoritative information and images on three centuries of Philadelphia buildings and designers.
Philadelphia Skyline - Neighborhoods
Photos listed by neighborhood.
Images of America
Collections of photographs by neighborhood, in e-book format. Select Browse Books > Browse Places to find Philadelphia selections.
At Penn Libraries
Other photographic resources found in the Penn Libraries' catalog.