Archives West Finding Aid

The 1906 San Francisco Earthquake Scrapbook is comprised of 30 newspaper clippings and 7 supplemental posters depicting the city of San Francisco and surrounding areas before and after the 1906 earthquake and fire. The scrapbook, titled "Views of San Francisco Disaster, April 18th, 1906"  was assembled by Mrs. T. S. Clark and is comprised of supplemental posters from the San Francisco Examiner and newspaper clippings, which were also likely sourced from the Examiner. The clippings, which were trimmed to include captions, have been pasted into a booklet of teaching certificate blanks.

The scrapbook's pre-earthquake images of San Francisco include City Hall, the Call Building, the Palace Hotel, the Post Office, and Union Square. Photographs of the aftermath of the earthquake include images of the Call Building, Palace Hotel, San Francisco Opera House, Mills Building, Fairmont Hotel, Columbia Theater, Flood Building, Examiner Building, Winchester Hotel, City Hall, Emporium Building, Valencia Street Hotel, St. Ignatius Church and College, and Colonel Andrew's Diamond Palace. Post-earthquake street scenes include several views from Market Street (3rd St., 4th St., and Powell), the corner of Page and Gough, the corner of Montgomery and Bush, and Chinatown. Also present are images of the city's homeless and refugee population at Golden Gate Park, Jefferson Square, and in a bread line at St. Mary's Cathedral. Of particular interest is a diagram comparing the extent of the San Francisco fire to the 1871 Chicago Fire and the 1904 Baltimore Fire.

The scrapbook also contains several images from the area around San Francisco. Included is a pre-earthquake image of the Chapel at Stanford University and post-earthquake images of the entrance to Stanford University, the Santa Rosa Bank Buildings, and the Sonoma Courthouse. There is also an image of a stagecoach in Sacramento, California delivering news of the status of northern California.

The loose posters found within the scrapbook were published as supplements to issues of the San Francisco Examiner and include several panoramic and elevated views of the city and depict landmarks such as Telegraph Hill, Nob Hill, Russian Hill, the San Francisco waterfront, and Chinatown. These supplements were published by the Examiner between May 13 and July 22, 1906.