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Some 1906 Earthquake images

Jack

Sr. Administrator
Staff member
I did a project for a local man who was born in 1917. His wife passed a few years ago and in going through her belongings, he found an envelope full of prints his wife's mother or grandparents had purchased right after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. He wanted them all scanned and processed so he could print them. I'm sharing the un-repaired versions and I have his permission to do so.

The photographer used a wet-plate camera -- actually as far as I can tell, two different ones with slightly different backs. One has a clear light leak along the top edge of the camera (bottom of the image). The other had a badly skewed back and rendered trapezoidal image frames which you cannot see here because I did crop slightly for web posting. The originals are all printed on a rough-surface paper of some unknown type. Some show the original photographer's copyright scratched into the surface of the wet plate after processing.

Note that I have named the files with what was printed by the original photographer on the back of the prints, spelling mistakes and all. There were a few that were not labelled, or the label was illegible, so I used generic names on those. Here is the link to these in the gallery if you want more details: http://forum.getdpi.com/gallery/browseimages.php?c=257

Here are the images:





















~~~
UPDATE, prints now available!

I have had a few inquiries about purchasing copies of the above images. After some research, I discovered the copyright for works published in 1906 expired sometime in the 1980's, so these images are technically now public domain and as such we can sell copies legally.

I have worked these up for nostalgic looking prints, meaning I've cleaned them a little, but not overly so -- a lot of the crud on them was in the original wet plate (imagine the dust!) or even junk flying through the air during the fires. I print them with a soft sepia toning to lightly replicate the color of the originals. I slightly up-size them to around 6-1/2 x 9 keeping as much of the original frame as possible, so they fit nicely on letter sized stock. I have to say they look very, very nice printed on Harman Gloss Art Fiber or Epson Exhibition Fiber.

For anybody interested, I can offer these for $50 each plus $5 for packaging and US shipping, or $15 for packaging and International First Class postage.
 
M

meilicke

Guest
Those are amazing. So interesting, from how people are gathered, to the clothes they are wearing, the equipment being used to fight the fires. Wow.
 

Corlan F.

Subscriber Member
#3, 8 & 9 definitely bleong to a museum. :bugeyes:
Well all of them are.

#8 is absolutely unique. UNESCO material.

Thanks for sharing Jack!
 

Cindy Flood

Super Moderator
This is a wonderful piece of history. The Quake Call Bldg 3rd And Market photo gives me goose bumps. Jack, do you think that these are the only copies of these photos around, or was this something that was widely sold after the earthquake?
 

Jack

Sr. Administrator
Staff member
Glad you're all enjoying them!

Cindy, I honestly have no idea. I know there are tons of images floating around of the quake, but I don't know how widely this particular photographer marketed his. Clearly he was using pro level gear for the time, but as clearly he was shooting quick and didn't take the time to carefully zero his camera for a lot of the shots either.
 

Jack

Sr. Administrator
Staff member
UPDATE, prints now available!

I have had a few inquiries about purchasing copies of the above images. After some research, I discovered the copyright for works published in 1906 expired sometime in the 1980's, so these images are technically now public domain and as such we can sell copies legally.

I have worked these up for nostalgic looking prints, meaning I've cleaned them a little, but not overly so -- a lot of the crud on them was in the original wet plate (imagine the dust!) or even junk flying through the air during the fires. I print them with a soft sepia toning to lightly replicate the color of the originals. I slightly up-size them to around 6-1/2 x 9 keeping as much of the original frame as possible, so they fit nicely on letter sized stock. I have to say they look very, very nice printed on Harman Gloss Art Fiber or Epson Exhibition Fiber.

For anybody interested, I can offer these for $50 each plus $5 for packaging and US shipping, or $15 for packaging and International First Class postage.
 
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