Herron Art Library - Art Research Guide

The Indianapolis Historic Preservation Commission Collection contains information and images of Indianapolis properties located within designated historic districts.

Digitized images from Indiana Landmarks' slide collection, from the early 1960s through present day. Captures historic architecture throughout the state.

This collection consists of large-scale color maps depicting the commercial, industrial, and residential sections of Indianapolis, Indiana. The Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps include the years 1887, 1898 (updated between 1900-1915), and 1914-1915 (updated between 1915-1950), while the Baist Real Estate Atlases include the years 1916, 1927, and 1941. The maps show individual building "footprints", complete with construction details, such as building material (brick, adobe, frame, etc.), height (of larger buildings), number of stories, location of doors, windows, chimneys and elevators, use of structure (dwelling, hotel, church, etc.), street address, and occasionally the ethnicity of the occupants.

The Sanborns were created by the Sanborn Company starting in 1867 specifically to assist insurance companies in determining fire risk and thereby premiums while the Baist Atlases were used for real estate zoning purposes. Today these maps are used by scholars and researchers in such fields as history, urban geography, architectural history and preservation, ethnic studies, and urban archaeology.

In addition to keyword searching, extensive metadata enables you to search by landmark type, such as churches, or by specific landmark name, like Indianapolis Water Company. To do this click on "Advanced Search" and select the only the box for Indianapolis Sanborn Map and Baist Atlas Collection. At the top of the page, click on "Selected fields" and pick a field to search using the drop-down menu. Clicking on "show terms" will display a box with a list of terms to choose from.

For black and white version of additional years of the Sanborn Fire Insurance maps please visit the ProQuest database.

Historic Indianapolis kindles a passion for preserving and promoting the city’s past to enhance the enjoyment of the present and inspire for the future.

Guidelines for researching houses in Indianapolis.

Indiana Landmarks is a nonprofit organization, fighting to defend architecturally unique, historically significant, and communally cherished properties.

Properties listed in the Register include districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects that are significant in American history, architecture, archeology, engineering, and culture.

What Was There is a virtual time machine that allows users to navigate familiar streets as they appeared in the past, by superimposing historic photographs over Google Maps.

The American Architect was a periodical on architecture and building published in the US during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The American Architect began publication in 1876 as The American Architect and Building News. It changed name simply to the American Architect in 1909. (Starting in 1921 it was known as The American Architect and the Architectural Review, for a serial it absorbed.) It reverted to The American Architect in 1925. It ceased publication in 1938, when it was absorbed into the Architectural Record. There do not appear to have been any copyright renewals for issues of this journal. From the Online Books Page, University of Pennsylvania Library (onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu)