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Finding Aid to the California State Earthquake Investigation Commission
Photographs from the Andrew C. Lawson Collection, 1900-1910, bulk 1906
BANC PIC 1957.007
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Collection Title: California State Earthquake Investigation Commission
photographs from the Andrew C. Lawson collection,
Date (inclusive): 1900-1910,
Date (bulk): bulk 1906
Collection number: BANC PIC 1957.007
Collector:
Lawson, Andrew C. (Andrew Cowper),
1861-1952.
California. State Earthquake Investigation Commission.
Extent:
60 boxes (ca. 645 negatives) and ca. 105 photographic prints
698 digital objects
Repository: The Bancroft Library
Berkeley, California 94720-6000
Abstract: Photographs taken or collected by the California State
Earthquake Investigation Commission to document the effects of the San Francisco
earthquake of 1906 on the landscape and on buildings, roads and other structures.
Locations range from Humboldt County in the north to San Bernardino and San Diego
counties in the south.
Languages represented: Collection materials are in English.
Physical location: Many of the Bancroft Library collections are stored
offsite and advance notice may be required for use. For current information on the
location of these materials, please consult the library's online catalog.
RESTRICTED ORIGINAL glass plate negatives. Viewing prints available. Use of
originals only by permission of the appropriate curator. Inquiries concerning
these materials should be directed, in writing, to the Curator of Pictorial
Collections, The Bancroft Library.
Please use digital facsimiles when possible.
All requests to reproduce, publish, quote from, or otherwise use collection
materials must be submitted in writing to the Head of Access Services, The
Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley 94720-6000. Consent is
given on behalf of The Bancroft Library as the owner of the physical items and
does not constitute permission from the copyright owner. Such permission must be
obtained from the copyright owner. See: http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/reference/permissions.html
Restrictions also apply to digital representations of the original
materials. Use of digital files is restricted to research and educational purposes.
[Identification of item], California State Earthquake Investigation Commission
Photographs from the Andrew C. Lawson Collection, BANC PIC 1957.007, The
Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.
Digital reproductions of selected images are available.
Forms part of the Andrew C. Lawson photograph collection, transferred from the
Andrew C. Lawson papers.
Andrew C. Lawson papers, 1880-1969 (bulk 1890-1951), BANC MSS C-B 602.
The California State Earthquake Investigation Commission Photographs from the
Andrew C. Lawson Collection was given to The Bancroft Library
by Mrs. Andrew C. Lawson on September 19, 1956.
No additions are expected.
Processed by Bancroft Library staff in 2005.
Many negatives bear plate number annotations which correspond to the plate
numbers in the 1908 publication "The California earthquake of April 18, 1906:
report of the State Earthquake Investigation Commission." These plate numbers,
when legible, have been noted in the following Container List. Not all plates
from the published report are present in this collection, and many negatives are
present which were not published.
In this finding aid, the contents of the collection have been arranged into
series according to photographer. As a result of this arrangement, images do not
appear in item number order. Item numbers were originally assigned during
various prior phases of collection processing and do not consistently reflect a
natural grouping according to subject matter, location, or photographer or any
other logical grouping. Because each of the photographers, for the most part,
worked in a limited geographical range, the present arrangement is an attempt to
reflect both the common sources as well as the content of the images.
The physical arrangement of the collection and the numbering scheme used to
identify and locate items reflects three artificial series created by the
library. This physical and numerical arrangement is not reflected in the
organization of the present finding aid, except that item call numbers contain
eferences to "series" numbers required for retrieval. Series 1 and Series 2 have
no real difference in content. They both consist of original film and glass
plate negatives. Images in Series 1 were grouped by photographers’ names and
assigned numbers by library staff. Series 2 includes many images that would
logically fall within Series 1 and are from the same photographers and
geographic areas, but the numbering for Series 1 had been established and it was
impossible to neatly integrate them. Series 2 has been numbered according to
early numbers found affixed to the negatives on round labels. Not all numbers in
the range are present. These numbers seem to correspond with caption information
in an album of J.C. Branner held at Stanford University. Series 3 is largely
miscellaneous, containing photographic prints with no corresponding negative or
negatives which were not included in Series 1 (usually by unknown photographers)
and which did not have item numbers placing them in Series 2.
Scope and Content of Collection
The California State Earthquake Investigation Commission Photographs from the
Andrew C. Lawson Collection consists of negatives and photographic prints taken by or
collected by members of the Earthquake Investigation Commission. Images document the
effects of the California earthquake of 1906 on the landscape and on buildings,
roads and other structures. Locations range from Humboldt County in the north to San
Bernardino and San Diego counties in the south. Most images focus on the geology of
the event, documenting the results of earth movement, offset to fences and roads,
landslides, etc. The series of images by Harold Wellman Fairbanks may date prior to
the April 1906 earthquake, reflecting his research in Central and Southern
California that lead to the identification of the San Andreas Fault. For example,
Fairbanks is known to have visited the Carrizo Plain with A.C. Lawson in January,
1906. In addition to the geological landscape studies, the collection includes many
views of structural damage in San Francisco, Santa Rosa, Tomales, Monterey, at
Stanford University, and other locales.
The collection includes original glass plate negatives, later prints from some of
these negatives (made by the library), glass plate copy negatives presumably made by
the commission from photographic prints loaned to them, and original photographic
prints made by others which were collected by Lawson or other commission members.
Identified photographers include Andrew C. Lawson, Harry Oscar Wood, Harold Wellman
Fairbanks, Francois Emile Matthes, Arthur Starr Eakle, Joseph N. LeConte, J.C.
Branner, Grove Karl Gilbert, R.S. Holway, G.S. Crosby, and individuals only
identified as Dudley, Moran, E.C. and R.A..
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the
library's online public access catalog.
Buildings--Earthquake effects--Photographs
Earthquakes--California--San Francisco--Photographs.
Faults (Geology)--California--Photographs
Geology--California
San Francisco Earthquake, Calif., 1906--Photographs.
Photographs