Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Brooklyn, Kings County, New York (1888) by Sanborn Map Company

A Street-Level Portrait of Brooklyn — Sanborn Fire Insurance Map, Kings County (1888)

Hold nineteenth-century Brooklyn at true working scale. Compiled in 1888 by the Sanborn Map Company for underwriters and city officials, this sheet distils the borough into block-by-block clarity: building footprints and construction materials, street widths, lot lines, house numbers, hydrants, water mains, and industrial risks—every element drawn to anticipate fire and understand the city’s fabric. It’s Brooklyn before the bridge’s shadow fully lengthened, rendered with the calm precision that made Sanborn the gold standard of American urban mapping.

More Than a Map – A Testament to History

This is not just wall art—it’s a primary source. Each outline, symbol, and note reveals how people built, insured, regulated, and lived in late-Victorian Brooklyn: where frame houses stood beside brick tenements, where workshops backed onto rail spurs, where utilities threaded the streets. Ideal for urban historians, genealogists, architects, educators, designers, and New Yorkers past and present, it’s both a visual treasure and an indispensable research tool.

Display it in classrooms, offices, museums, libraries, or your home, and create a space that invites reflection, study, and conversation.

Premium Materials & Finishes

We treat history with the respect it deserves. That’s why we offer multiple formats, each produced using the highest quality materials and modern archival printing techniques.

🌟 Archival Paper Print
Printed on heavyweight 160gsm archival-grade paper.
Smooth matte finish reduces glare and preserves fine linework, symbols, and small annotations.
Ideal for framing under glass, keeping detail crisp for decades.

💎 Laminated Edition
Encapsulated in two 80-micron gloss laminate sheets using true thermal bonding—not just surface lamination.
Moisture-resistant, wipe-clean surface—perfect for studios, classrooms, and high-traffic reference spaces.
Optional Natural Timber Hang Rails: lacquered rails with a fitted hanging cord deliver a polished, ready-to-display look—no frame required. (Please allow up to 10 working days for delivery with hang rails.)

🏆 Museum-Quality Canvas
Printed on heavyweight 395gsm HP Professional Matte Canvas for rich texture and strength.
Pigment-based, fade-resistant inks produce deep tone and razor-sharp labels that endure for generations.
Optional Natural Timber Hang Rails: lacquered to enhance the wood grain, with a top cord for effortless hanging—timeless and elegant. (Please allow up to 10 working days for delivery with hang rails.)

Specifications

Why Choose This Map

✔ Research-Grade Detail: The unparalleled granularity of Sanborn—ideal for address-level history and urban morphology.
✔ Room-Ready Legibility: Clear symbology and measured linework read beautifully from across the room and reward close study.
✔ Decorative & Scholarly: Equally suited to interiors and to teaching architecture, planning, and family history.
✔ Crafted to Last: Premium substrates and archival inks preserve contrast and annotation fidelity for decades.
✔ Ready to Display: Optional hang-railed laminated or canvas editions provide a museum-quality presentation—no frame required.
✔ A Meaningful Gift: Perfect for New Yorkers, historians, architects, and design-minded collectors.

Our Commitment

We believe that preserving history is as important as telling it. Every map is printed locally in Australia using state-of-the-art technology, carefully checked by hand, and packed with care. From the moment it leaves our workshop to the day it hangs on your wall, we ensure quality you can trust and a legacy you’ll be proud to share.

Bring Brooklyn’s 1888 streetscape into your space. Order the Sanborn Fire Insurance Map, Kings County today—a faithful, beautifully produced record of a city built in brick, timber, and ambition.