The 1906 Earthquake in San Francisco

I explored the archives of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquakes and Fires depicted through photographs. This collection interested me the most because San Francisco is near my hometown, and the topic of earthquakes has become extremely relevant in these past years. The collection contains 39 black-and-white photographs by unknown photographers, and was published by Clinton Johnson, a publisher from Los Angeles. These prints display the effects of the earthquake and fires in San Francisco and Oakland.

Most of the images are all landscape shots of torn sidewalks, fallen buildings, and smoke from the fires. These images can be used to tell a great story using primary and raw facts about the incident. Barren trees, scattered debris, and empty streets indicate the state of tragedy that the residents experienced. Several of the images actually show the effects of the earthquake on San Francisco residents, like the ones of residents huddled in refugee camps throughout the city. These records are good to demonstrate the effects of the earthquake on the city’s architecture as a whole, as the damages to all the infrastructures led to the reconstruction of some buildings. The historical narrative of this event is centered around the particular demolition of buildings and streets, and less on the impact of the event on individuals.

The narrative of the people who survived the earthquakes and fires is missing from this collection. Because of the emphasis on physical damage to buildings and streets in San Francisco and Oakland, there is little acknowledgement on the effects of the tragedy on residents. This collection is also void of the human factor, that is, the lack of perspective from people who survived the earthquake. The collection is only made of images, which poses the problem that the people who view this collection are only able to observe the facts of the incident, rather than understand the emotions that ensued the tragedy.

To address these gaps in the historical narrative of the earthquake, the archivists could have found primary sources from people living in San Francisco at the time. Collecting journals, telegram records, or other written accounts of experiences would have supplemented the narrative by introducing multiple perspectives of the tragedy. I understand that photographs were difficult to capture and were not a necessary commodity, so other sources of information other than photographs could have been used to complete this collection. In addition, interviewing residents and including snippets of these interviews to supplement the photographs would have also provided a broader understanding of the effects of the earthquake.