The Fresno County Property Atlases

Fresno County Public Library
2420 Mariposa Street
Fresno, CA 93721
(559) 488-3195
http://www.fresnolibrary.org/
© 2008


Descriptive Summary

Title: The Fresno county property atlases
Dates: 1891-1920
Bulk Dates: 1891-1940
Collection number: Consult library
Collector: Fresno County Public Library
Collection Size: 6 atlases 6 online items
Repository: Fresno County Public Library
Fresno, CA 93721
Abstract: The Fresno County Public Library holds five atlases, dating from 1891 to circa 1940, which segment Fresno County by township and range, illustrating individual parcels and labeling them with the owners names. Detailed city and town plats are also found in the atlases, showing lots, blocks and additions, although individual property owners are omitted. Their value to historians and genealogists is tremendous, but the limited availability of copies has hampered their overall usefulness. The dates of original atlases held by the Library are 1891, 1907, 1909, 1920 and circa 1940; it also holds digital facsimiles of atlases for 1911 and 1913.
Languages: Languages represented in the collection: English

Access

Collection open for research.

Preferred Citation

The Fresno county property atlases. Consult library. Fresno County Public Library, Fresno, CA 93721.

Acquisition Information

Fresno County Public Library owns the 1891, 1907 and 1920 atlases. A digitized facsimile of the 1909 and 1911 atlas was obtained from Special Collections, Henry Madden Library, California State University, Fresno, and the Fresno City and County Historical Society lent a copy of the 1913 atlas for digitization.

Project Information

The project was part of the California Local History Digital Resources Project (LHDRP), a multi-year program supported by the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act, administered in California by the State Librarian.
The 1891-1920 portion of the property atlas collection was digitized to provide wider research access. The atlases are rare, held by few institutions, and hitherto have been unavailable for consultation in a single place. A digitized facsimile of the 1911 atlas was obtained from Special Collections, Henry Madden Library, California State University, Fresno, and the Fresno City and County Historical Society lent a copy of the 1913 atlas for digitization, thereby completing the collection of known Fresno County property atlases for the period. Their value to historians and genealogists is considerable, as they document the evolution of the Fresno County landscape during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. A searchable set of images from the atlases is available at http://www.fresnolibrary.org/calif/atlases.html , and a set has been distributed to the California Digital Library/Calisphere.

Scope and Content of Collection

The Fresno County Public Library holds five atlases, dating from 1891 to circa 1940, which segment Fresno County by township and range, illustrating individual parcels and labeling them with the owner names. Detailed city and town plats are also found in the atlases, showing lots, blocks and additions, although individual property owners are omitted. Their value to historians and genealogists is tremendous, but the limited availability of copies has hampered their overall usefulness. The dates of original atlases held by the Library are 1891, 1907, 1909, 1920 and circa 1940; it also holds digital facsimiles of atlases for 1911 and 1913.

Indexing Terms

The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection.

Names and Places

Fresno County (Calif.)

Topics

Real property
Landowners

Genres and Forms of Materials

Atlases