Resources for Research on your Site
The online maps and reference materials available through MIT's Rotch Library are found on the web here.
If you recall, the more useful resources for researching the history of your site will be the Sanborn and the Bromley Fire Insurance Atlases, many of which are available at Rotch Library (on paper and microfilm) and some of which are available on the web.
http://libraries.mit.edu/guides/types/maps-urban/index.html
The Sanborn maps, which will be especially useful to you, are available at the following site. Please note that you must be on campus to access these maps.
http://sanborn.umi.com/
In locating historic maps of the Boston area on which to locate your site, you might find the book Mapping Boston helpful. It is by Alex Krieger and David Cobb with Amy Turner, and is available in the reference section of Rotch Library as well as in the stacks. There is also a website associated with the book that contains some of the same maps:
http://www.mappingboston.org
The State of Massachusetts maintains a website with maps and information on most of the cities & towns in MA. To access it, go to http://commpres.env.state.ma.us/index.asp and click the 'Choose a Community' link near the top of the page. Available Information includes buildout maps, aerial photographs, zoning maps, and photographs of the town, among other things.
Maps Over Time is another resource for historical map collections on Boston and Cambridge:
http://www.mapsovertime.com/index.htm
Future Boston includes historical images of many Boston neighborhoods over the years:
http://www.futureboston.org/bostonmaps.htm
For GIS (geographic information system) information on Massachusetts cities and towns, see the following site:
http://www.state.ma.us/mgis/massgis.htm
The Library of Congress has an online map collection that, again, may help provide some contextual maps on which to locate your site.
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/gmdhtml/gmdhome.html
In addition, you probably should look up books pertaining to the history of your site. You are unlikely to find books that will contain as detailed historic information as what you're looking for. But reading such books might:
Use the MIT Libraries online catalogue system (Barton) to do searches for material on your site.
- Give you a historical overview, and help you figure out what dates you might want to look at, and
- Help you find some primary source historical maps that may not have been available to you through other means.
http://libraries.mit.edu/barton
If you have additional questions or problems, contact Marissa Cheng.