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Atlases:
Property
atlases were all the rage in the mid-nineteenth century. They remain
popular today for the wealth of information they supply. Typically a
company salesman would take subscriptions from local landowners, insuring
their inclusion on the forthcoming atlases. These atlases often
include roads, post offices, hotels and taverns, mills, schools, creeks,
railroads and the names of property owners. Probably the most used
of all Delaware maps is J.G. Beer's Atlas of the State of Delaware,
from 1868. It is a fine example of a property atlas. Similar
atlases were made for Wilmington and Kent and New Castle Counties from the
1840s through the early 1900s. Unfortunately the Society does not
have a similar atlas for Sussex County. Click here
for a listing of our state and local atlases.
Insurance Maps:
Produced
for use by insurance companies in assessing the value of and potential
risks to properties. These extremely detailed maps provide
information about the size and number of stories of buildings, the
materials used, number and type of windows in the buildings, commercial
owners, and lot size. They are extremely helpful when trying to
create a visual image of a neighborhood. However, insurance maps
exist only for urban areas.
Click here to see a listing of the Sanborn
Fire Insurance Maps in the Historical Society of Delaware's collections.
Property Maps:
These
maps are produced mainly for legal reasons and supply limited information
except for boundary information and sometimes existing buildings.
Eighteenth and early nineteenth century property maps, drawn by hand and
often water-colored are often curious, quirky and sometimes very beautiful
documents. The map featured at the heading of the map collection
page is a fine example of a property map.
State Highway Maps:
The
golden age of the automobile opened up the country roads to folks like
never before. State road maps helped vacationing families, traveling
salesmen and adventuresome autoists find their way. Apart from their
use as road maps, however, road maps usually included hints about the
"hot topics" in the state at the time, most often relating to
tourism and business. In Delaware, the opening of the Delaware
Memorial Bridge, or the Chesapeake Bay Bridge was featured in road maps of
the time.
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