By Merrill Stein

Image courtesy of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanborn_maps

Sanborn Digital Maps, 1867-1970 (ProQuest), provide access to more than 660,000 Sanborn maps, produced over a century, charting the growth, layout and development of more than 12,000 American towns and cities. Originally produced in color, these black and white Sanborn maps are large-scale plans of a city or town, drawn at a scale of fifty feet to an inch. They were created to assist fire insurance companies as they assessed the risk associated with insuring a particular property. The maps list street blocks and building numbers including numbers in use at the time the map was made and previous numbers. A legend has also been added to assist with interpretation of the black and white maps.

Although Sanborn maps today have minimal interest for the fire insurance industry, municipal governments are Sanborn’s best customers today. Engineering and architectural concerns are also significant purchasers of corrected Sanborn maps. The maps can be useful for geography and urban planning, ancestry, history and policy studies.

For additional information and history about Sanborn maps, visit the ProQuest guide and the Library of Congress Introduction to the Sanborn Map Collection. Access the Sanborn Digital Maps, 1867-1970 (ProQuest) trial under Falvey Library’s Databases A to Z. Access the Sanborn Digital Maps, 1867-1970 (ProQuest) trial under Falvey Library’s Databases A to Z, until Nov. 4.

Merrill Stein is Political Science Librarian at Falvey Memorial Library.

The library has recently purchased access to two essential LGBTQ+ research resources: Alexander Street’s LGBT Thought and Culture and Proquest’s LGBT Magazine archive. These new additions will greatly bolster the University’s LGBTQ+ research resources and help fill important gaps in our LGBTQ+ and Gender and Women’s Studies collections.

LGBT Thought and Culture provides coverage of the essential works and archival documents of the global LGBTQ+ movement. It includes the Pat Rocco and Jeanne Cordova collections, which contain speeches, correspondences, and ephemeral from these important LGBTQ+ activists. The collection also includes the Magnus Hirshfeld collection, which includes professional correspondence, confidential reports, and court documents from the renowned early 20^th century sex researcher.

The collection includes a huge array of limiters including subject heading, archival collections, and media-type, allowing researchers to hone in on very specific aspects of LGBTQ+ culture. Whenever possible the resource includes a high definition direct scan of the source material with a sidebar table of contents for the scanned resource.

The LGBT Magazine Archive feature full coverage of 26 of the most influential LGBTQ+ magazine and newspapers. This archive also includes, for the first time, the entire run of the Advocate from its inception in 1967 to the present. The ProQuest interface allows researchers to search all the tiles simultaneously or restrict their searching to a specific title or titles. A place of publication limiter also allows researchers to search by region.

Both resources will provide researchers with long overdue access to a huge store of LGBTQ+ primary resources.

For any research-related questions regarding LGBTQ+ or gender studies, contact Susan Turkel,  the Sociology & Criminology, Global Interdisciplinary Studies, and Gender & Women’s Studies librarian.

Rob LeBlanc is First year Experience Librarian at Falvey Library.