Historical Aerial Photographs, Maps, GIS Services and Custom Research

Whether you need a series of color fire insurance maps to track the history of a single property or you need an entire collection of aerials or maps georeferenced for your city or firm, you’ll find that we’re easy to work with. Your needs are always in the forefront when we create site specific or area-wide historical research data that meets your project specifications.

We’re also mindful of the ASTM standards that require identification of historical property uses and review of current, accurate environmental information. Our products are designed to be clear and high quality so you can see potential issues while you have time to react.

What you can expect from our products and services:

  • Value – including cost-saving research packages and report-ready products to save you time.
  • Accurate and complete data – environmental professionals rave about our accurate historical property data packages that are tailored for environmental due diligence reporting requirements.
  • Ease – we deliver your data so it is easy for you or an entire project team to access and use.
  • Attention – we answer your questions quickly and we’ll give you a heads up if we see incomplete site information so your project is delivered right the first time.

Our clients also report that we’re friendly and easy to work with. We enjoy working closely with clients to quickly provide the data you need to move your project forward. Find out more about each of our most popular products and services:

  • Aerial photographs – set of historical bird’s eye photographs of single properties to large areas and corridors across the U.S.
  • City directories – scanned pages or abstracts for a single address or entire neighborhoods.
  • Historical maps – including fire insurance maps by Sanborn and other publishers.
  • Database reports – ASTM or custom environmental database reports prepared by our database report providers ERIS, EnviroCheck Solutions, Envirosite and GeoSearch.
  • GIS services & scanning – from scanning entire collections to georeferencing maps for entire cities.
  • Corridors & big sites – historical aerial photos, topographic maps, fire insurance maps and more for wind farms, mining and forestland, railroads, transportation, energy lines, brownfield redevelopment areas and more.
  • Chain of Title reports and Environmental Lien/Activity and Use Limitations (AULs) search reports.
  • File retrieval – for deep dive local government records research at state, county and municipal agency offices in our headquarters metro area, the Twin Cities.

Is Your Historical Research Up To The Current Standard?

ASTM Phase I Environmental Site Assessment standards require a certain level of reporting – is that what you’re getting? The E1527-21 standard states in Section 8.3:

8.3.1 Objective—The objective of compiling and analyzing historical property information and developing a history of the previous uses of the subject property, adjoining properties, and surrounding area is to help identify the likelihood of past uses having led to recognized environmental conditions in connection with the subject property. The environmental professional shall exercise professional judgment and consider the possible releases that might have occurred at the subject property, adjoining properties, and surrounding area in light of the historical uses and, in concert with other relevant information gathered as part of the Phase 1 process, use this information to assist in identifying recognized environmental conditions in connection with the subject property.

HIG’s historical property use information and database reports options can help you understand current environmental conditions and past property uses, so you can develop accurate conclusions in your environmental risk assessment report. To request a quote or for more information, call us at 952-253-2004, email us at orders@historicalinfo.com or request a quote using our ordering site at orders.historicalinfo.com.