Fire Insurance and Real Estate Atlases of Boston at the BPL
Norman B. Leventhal Map Center - Hours
See the Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center gallery hours, special hours, and research hours on their website.
Remote Reference and Research Services:
https://www.leventhalmap.org/research/
How Do I See the Atlases?
1. Make sure you have a BPL Library Card.
2. If your research pertains to Boston, determine which atlases you need by using this guide.
3. Arrange an appointment by emailing specialcollections@bpl.org with a list of the atlases you'd like to view. Or, if you are interested in atlases of other towns in Massachusetts, email with a list of dates and locations you wish to view and staff will respond with atlas availability.
Related Resources
How to Use Atlascope- Massachusetts State Library Atlas Digitization ProjectReal estate atlases digitized and online in Flickr albums and as PDFs.
- Library of Congress Sanborn Maps CollectionSanborn atlases of various U.S. cities digitized by the Library of Congress
- Researching Your HomePost about researching the history of your home and the people who lived in it
- How to Research a Historic Building in Boston (.PDF)Guide to additional resources for researching buildings in Boston from the Boston Landmarks Commission.
Historical Urban Atlases of Boston @ the BPL
This guide is a starting point for anyone interested in urban atlases of Boston, which provide detailed, building-level historical information about the city. This guide is focused on atlases of Boston and the inner suburbs. For atlases of other Massachusetts towns, see the Massachusetts Towns guide.
Where to Find Information
The easiest way to search for atlases is by using our tool, Atlascope.
If you prefer a list of citations, under the "List" tab, you will find all of our holdings, by neighborhood and in chronological order, with citation information. If you only have a street address and do not know the geographic location, check the street indexes in the atlases.
To access the atlases as GIS data layers you can use this guide, which is available from our GIS documentation and guide website, Cartinal.
Under the "Publishers" tab, you will find information about major publishers and the types of features shown in their atlases, such as building material or property owners.
Atlascope
The easiest way to find urban atlases at the BPL is by using Atlascope, a new discovery tool developed by LMEC.
Atlascope allows you to overlay historical atlases over modern day maps, and compare changes across time.
Jump right in, or read the Atlascope User Manual to learn how it works!