The archival collection I chose to examine was the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and Fire Digital Collection which provides historical evidence of the devastating natural disaster and the city’s response through numerous photographs. This is a compilation of selected holdings from many different sources and libraries around the area totaling around 14,000 images and 7,000 pages of historical text. The material presented also includes a full introduction on the project website with interactive exhibits for further audience engagement.
Based on the materials in this collection we are able to decipher a lot about what actually happened during the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake. The evidence selected contributes to many different themes such as quakes before 1906, damage the quake and the ensuing firestorms created, and the relief/reconstruction effort by the city. For example, much of the photographs show images of ruined homes, schools, landmark buildings, and simply mounds of rubble which truly show the impact of the disaster. In conjunction with the devastation, many of the photographs highlight the resiliency of the city where we see images of people attempting to rebuild structures and provide aid to those affected by the earthquake.
Altogether, the audience is presented with a narrative of resiliency and redemption through photography. If my narrative were based entirely on this collection, I believe a more personal and relatable element to this story would be omitted. A majority of the photographs I looked at simply displayed the physical dominance the earthquake and following fire’s had on the city but did not really demonstrate the emotional/mental toll it had on the people living there. One can only draw so much from the photographs provided that do include people in them and therefore the narrative might be very different than that of what an audience member may deduce. In that way, we observe the system of positivism in the way the project team chose to select their evidence.
Since the collection only included photographs, in order to address these gaps, things like newspaper articles, transcripts of dialogue, and medical records are things that would fulfill the more humanistic side to the devastating effects of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake.
This is a great perspective on the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake photos – I really appreciate your comment about this massive archive that already has tens of thousands of photos missing a crucial element of personalization. I think in a world where we see trauma happening every day, it becomes easy to separate the real human lives that are associated with the tragedies of natural disasters. The addition of more personal photos to an archive like this would have also contributed to the narrative you noticed – one that tells a story of resiliency! Great job!
Hi there,
You have done a wonderful job describing this archival project in a clear and concise way. I appreciate that you have included a variety of categories that the archive falls under, as well as the unique point of the omission of a more personal, emotional narrative. I think if you were to take this approach, things such as personal interviews with relatives of the victims and diary entries of the victims would really add to that narrative.
Hi, I think you did a great job describing this archive. I liked the way you introduced the archive and gave some background information before you started explaining the narrative and the missing pieces. The set up of the blog post was very clear and easy to understand.
Hi,
I enjoyed reading your posts regarding how through positivism, the tens and thousands of archives in this collection can only reach a certain limited conclusion. For a massive and devastating earthquake in human history, I agree that such huge amount of photographs and historical text are inadequate to comprehensively understand the effect of the earthquake, and that more first-person interview and personal transcripts should be added to prevent the silencing of the victims.