Questions about our Sanborn Maps®

What are Sanborn Maps®?

Sanborn Maps were crafted by cartographers who carefully tracked changes in landscapes, property boundaries and land uses in the United States, and then arranged and illustrated these features in astonishing detail. Each map reflects the care and craftsmanship of Sanborn’s cartographers and are a valuable visual and textual record of American cities and towns during the 19th and 20th centuries.

Originally created for the fire insurance industry, today Sanborn Maps are an essential resource for environmental due diligence professionals, providing valuable insights into historical land uses and property assessments.

Why has EDR filed legal action against ERIS?

We believe that ERIS is illegally copying, selling, and distributing our Sanborn Maps without our permission and that its actions constitute copyright infringement.

EDR purchased the Sanborn Map collection in 1996 – since then, we have made significant investments to digitize the maps, integrate them with modern technologies and make them more usable, accessible, and valuable for our customers.

What types of investments has EDR made since purchasing Sanborn Maps to improve customer experience?

Prior to EDR’s acquisition of the Sanborn Map collection, environmental professionals who used Sanborn Maps for due diligence had to locate hard copy volumes or microfilm records in local libraries, a process that could take days or even weeks.

EDR has made significant investments to improve access and add functionality to Sanborn Maps for our customers. Our innovative offerings provide our customers a faster, easier, and more effective way of using the maps.

We digitized the entire Sanborn Map collection in high resolution.

We georeferenced the maps into a seamless mosaic, making identifying and reading target property and adjoining maps faster and more reliable.

We also developed powerful interactive online tools like Lightbox, enabling customers to overlay Sanborn Maps on aerial photos, measure distances and create site drawings.

Who can I contact with additional questions?

Please click here to get in touch with us.