California, is a state with geographical position lends itself to the experience of many tragic natural disasters one of which, the forest fires currently causing devastation in Northern California now. This is why I chose the collection of materials from the 1906 San Francisco Earthquakes and Fires which feels particularly pertinent today.
The archive comprises a single first hand account of the earthquake written by Edward I. De Laveaga, with the addition of a small collection of documents which attained relevance from the earthquake including electricity permits and notices for building damage and repair. From the archive we can devise that De Laveaga’s account is forty pages long and the finding aid indicates that he was a student of University of California Berkeley, yet did not graduate. This piece of information, that De Laveaga did not graduate, lends itself to question whether it has any relationship or connection to the earthquake but can not be officially concluded.
From the account you could gain a likely emotional and honest account of the happening with details an official report would perhaps not include. From his account, the use of language and details he choses to describe, we could potentially infer the physicality of the buildings and he would most likely reference the amount of people around him. The account would detail the devastation on the community and city in the aftermath of such an event and the impact on everyday personal lives, rather than the physicality’s of rebuilding a city after such an event.
All of this is speculation however, and an emotive report of the event would not provide us with facts and statistics to gage the extent of the earthquake and damage. For this information I would have to explore official records, found in the Fire Brigade’s or Police records or even in the city council records. Moreover, a newspaper from the dates before and after the event would be informative of the extent of the damage most likely including photos. Photo’s of events such as these would be integral sources in conveying the extent of the damage as well as the people involved, but a first hand account puts into words the emotion of the experience in ways an image cant. Therefore there are both strengths and weaknesses from this source and in order to create a more complete and fuller narrative multiple sources would have to be consulted.
I find it interesting that you pointed out that the finding aid was inconclusive in indicating whether the earthquake had an effect on Edwards graduation. It seems almost as if the finding aid itself serves as a way of creating silence, simply by not making the point of that added information clear. It is also very true, as you mentioned, that all we can do from the finding aid is to speculate what might be in the document itself. For all we know, it could be a very pleasant record of the earthquake, but we assume that a well-known natural disaster had terrible effects on everyone.
I definitely agree that the collection is not sufficient to provide us with facts and statistics to gage the extent of the earthquake and damage. While the pictures show us a glance of the damage that was done, it’s hard to quantify just how serious the impact was and how devastating it must have been for residents. It’s a great idea to consider additional resources such as official records from the Fire Brigades or Police, in addition to first-hand accounts from those affected.