Guide to the San Francisco Earthquake and Fire Collection
SC0206
compiled by Stanford University Archives staff
Department of Special Collections and University Archives
2010
Green Library
557 Escondido Mall
Stanford 94305-6064
specialcollections@stanford.edu
Note
This encoded finding aid is compliant with Stanford EAD Best Practice Guidelines,
Version 1.0.
Language of Material:
Undetermined
Contributing Institution:
Department of Special Collections and University Archives
Title: San Francisco Earthquake and Fire collection
Creator:
Smith, Willet.
Creator:
Wallace, W.B.
Identifier/Call Number: SC0206
Identifier/Call Number: 11663
Physical Description:
5.75 Linear Feet
(8 boxes)
Date (inclusive): 1906-1979
Abstract: Eyewitness accounts of the 1906
earthquake at Stanford; eyewitness account of earthquake damage to the Stanford and Hopkins
houses in San Francisco; and magazine and newspaper accounts of the earthquake and its
aftermath.
Access
Collection is open for research; materials must be requested at least 24 hours in advance
of intended use.
Publication Rights
Property rights reside with the repository. Literary rights reside with the creators of the
documents or their heirs. To obtain permission to publish or reproduce, please contact the
Public Services Librarian of the Dept. of Special Collections.
Preferred Citation
[identification of item], San Francisco Earthquake and Fire Collection (SC0216), Department
of Special Collections and University Archives, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford,
Calif.
Scope and Content of Collection
The collection includes eyewitness accounts of the 1906 earthquake at Stanford; and
eyewitness account of earthquake damage to the Stanford and Hopkins houses in San Francisco
by Ah Wing, employee of the Stanford family (in Chinese with an English translation). Also
included are magazine and newspaper accounts of the earthquake and its aftermath; and a 1908
map of San Francisco showing reconstruction of the city.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
San Francisco Earthquake and Fire, Calif., 1906
Stansky, Leo
Clark, George A. (George Archibald)
Marx, Charles David
Jordan, David Starr
Treat, Payson J. (Payson Jackson)
Otto Gerdes Fund
Burr, Myron Carlos
Smith, Edgar C.
Klauber, Laurence Monroe
Bishop, Beryl Boewell
Beymer, Jeannette Hayward
Wing, Ah
Evans-Wentz, W. Y. (Walter Yeeling)
Franklin, E. C.
Smith, Ernst Nathaniel
James, William, Mrs.
Mosher, Clelia Duel
Eyewitness Accounts Series 11112891
Box 1, folder 24
Bertheau, Rudolf Jordan: reminiscences from his scrapbook [copy] 1112897
Box 1, folder 1
Beymer, Jeannette Hayward: "When Our University Shook," reprinted from
Stanford Review [typescript]
1112947
1931 Apr
Box 1, folder 2
Bishop, Beryl Boewell: typescript (carbon), signed and annotated by
author
1112945
"Quake Notes: aftermath of the great shake up; Monrovians all safe."
Monrovia Newspaper
1112949
1906 Apr 18
Telegram: Myron C. Burr to F. W. Burr [copy] 1112951
1906 Apr 20
Letter to family 1112953
1906 Apr 27
Physical Description: 4
page(s)
Letter to classmates 1112955
1906 Jun 2
Box 1, folder 4.1
Elwell, C. F. "I Was There; The San Francisco Earthquake, 1906," typescript
of British Broadcasting Corporation talk.
1112939
1937 Feb 19
Box 1, folder 5
Franklin, E. C. (professor): Letter to "Billy" [William C.
Stevens]
1112937
1906 Apr 26
Box 1, folder 6
James, Mrs. William: Letter to family, typescript [copy] 1112935
1906 Apr 18
Box 1, folder 20
Jossel, Talbert: "Reminiscences," newsclipping, Monterey, CA 1112905
1956 Apr 16-18
Box 1, folder 7
Klauber, Laurence M. ('08) 1112933
"Two Days in San Francisco: Year - 1906," privately printed 1115431
1958?
Reprinting of a letter to Alice Klauber with footnotes and supplement [2
copies]
1115433
"Two Days in San Francisco – 1906" with preface by Molly McClain, from
Winter/Spring 2005
Journal of San Diego History
[reprint]
1115435
Box 1, folder 26
Lyman, Georgina (A.B. 1907): newspaper edition of her letters to family
following earthquake plus one photograph
1112893
Box 1, folder 8
Mosher, Clelia Duel: "What the earthquake did at Palo Alto: an illustrated
letter," copy 1 (incomplete)
1112931
Box 1, folder 9
Mosher, Clelia Duel: "What the earthquake did at Palo Alto, and afterward: an
illustrated letter," copy ,2 bound, illustrated (photographs, cyanotypes, postcards,
maps, ephemera) in three parts
1112929
Scope and Contents
With "Notes and Comments" by Guy Miller, February 6, 1946.
Box 1, folder 23
Pierce, Garetta Hatch: Letter to family [photocopy] 1112899
[1906 Apr]
Box 1, folder 19
Show, Arley B., letters to E.V. Henler 1115479
1907 Mar 15 and Apr 29
Box 1, folder 10
Smith, Edgar C.: Excerpts from Genealogy and Personal Memoirs, "The
Earthquake," [copy, newsclipping included]
1112927
1965 Apr 14
Box 1, folder 11
Smith, Ernest Nathanial: Letter to "Aunt Jessie," copy 1112925
1906 May 10
Box 5
Smith, Willett: letters to family 1654417
1906 Apr 20-May 20
Scope and Contents
Autograph postcard and 5 autograph letters, singed in pencil, to his mother and
sisters in long Island, NY. 41 pages in all.
On the night before the quake, a young resident of Long Island, Everett Smith,
arrived in the city with a friend and checked into a rooming house. At 5: 13 am the
earthquake struck, and two days later, Smith manages to scribble the following note to
his mother back home: "Got Out of the earth quake & fire all OK Am stopping in the
sand hills on the beach. The town is completely gone. Good Bye. Willett"
In a series on six letters, Smith describes his experiences. On April 22, he writes:
"I got here at six oclock with my friend and we went around town and took in the
Sights and my friend and I looked for a rooming house for the night and we was going
up to one of the big places but I dont know what told me it seems it was nature not to
go and I didnt so I went down to the water front and got a room at a place I knew. We
went to bed about 11 o'clock and must have been sleeping on the edge of the bed
because I was thrown on the floor by the shock. I and my friend tried to get Out of
the room and the door was jammed. We bursted it to splinters. The stairs and halls was
full of flying transomes and plaster. We rushed downstairs and across to the docks and
we was dodging live wires and bricks and everything. There we were in our
underclothes. The house went in a heap. We got a pair a pants and a jumper out of a
broken clothing store window ." "[W]hen we came to our senses from the fright the
whole town was blazing in twenty different places." "The fire burned so fierce it
drove us up town and we had to run. It seemed the fire just roared."
Smith writes vividly of the horrors he witnessed, describing conditions everywhere as
such that "it can never be put in prim it was so terrible.' "Thousand of families have
not got a blanket to put over them. The suffering is terrible with the women and
children. I guess a thousand or more was killed by falling houses and pneumonia has
set in and the dead wagons are overcrowded ... We was two days without a mouth full to
eat ... i have stood it awful good but I don't know what I have been doing half of the
time."
In a letter of April 24, self-addressed from "The Ruins of San Francisco", Smith
writes: "The thieving and pillaging is something terrible & the troops have shot
and killed lots of crooks ... the women are going plumb loco ... They won't go back in
their houses and a good many have went out of their head ... the rich and poor are
about alike here now ... I could not buy a loaf of bread if I had a million dollars.
There isn't a baker shop in San Francisco that has an oven left. They have all got
caved in by the quake ... "
" ... Surely, I never expected to be alive and writing to you today ... I have been
out of doors ever since Wednesday morning 5 1/ 2 o'clock - We were all packed to
leave, the hotel is burned down it rocked so we could not stand to get Our clothes on
and got our trunks in the street - we paid $7.00 to get our two trunks to the park -
There are thousands of people here, rich & poor - no one has anything, but a few
bed clothes and clothes, the whole town is burned up, you can't tell the streets - We
sat in the first park we got to until the fire reached us and sawall the main part of
the town burn - such pitiful sights you never heard of - people men & women
carrying their goods all day and night. I did not see any of the dead but there are
hundreds dead and wounded - There was a baby born in the Park Wednesday night - we
sleep under the trees - the Government is feeding us - they dole out rations you stand
in a line guarded by the soldiers and are given whatever they have to give ...
yesterday evening one line was 10 thousand people long - we build fires to cook by,
but have to out them out at night ... the millionaires are sending food to us - and
will send tents to us as soon as they can be gotten. I am so shakey I can't hardly
hold the pencil- But I am so thankful I am alive and not hurt ... "
Box 1, folder 12
Stansky, Leo: Letter to Ralph Hansen 1112923
1976 Jun 5
Letter [photocopy] 1115439
1906 Apr 25
Transcript of interview on the earthquake [photocopy] 1115441
1972
Box 6
Tiwena, Jennie 1898041
1906 Apr 20
Scope and Contents
Golden Gate Park San Francisco April 20 1906
Dear Gussie,
We are alive and not hurt thank Almighty God for it. I don't know whether I can write
an intelligent or legible letter but I thought you all would like to know how we
fared.Truly I never expected to be alive and writing to you today.This is a book
leaf-if I can get an envelope I will send this, there are no stamps to be had. I wrote
to you all on Monday night before the earth quake. I have been out of doors since
Wednesday morning 3 o'clock. We were all packed to leave.The hotel is burned down,it
rocked so we could not stand to get our clothes on,it was only 8 stories but we were
on the 2nd floor.We got our clothes on and got our trunks in the street.We paid 7$ to
get our trunks to the park.There are thousands of people here rich & poor-no one
has anything but a few bedclothes,the whole town is burned up,you can't tell the
streets.We sat in the first park we got to until the fire reached us and saw all the
main part of the town burn-such pitiful sights you never heard of-people,men and women
carrying their goods all day and night. I did not see any of the dead but there are
hundreds of dead and wounded.There was a baby born in the park Wednesday nite. We
slept under the trees-the Government is feeding.^us-they ^out rations-you stand in a
line guarded by soldiers and are given whatever they have to give-we have a place to
eat and drink. Yesterday,one line was 10 thousand people long.We build fires to cook
by but have to put them out at night.We will leave for Los Gatos as soon as
possible.They will issue free tickets to all jggts of the U.S.The millionaires are
sending food to us and will send tents as soon as they can be gotten.I am so shaky I
can hardly hold the pencil.But I am so thankful I am alive and not hurt.O Lord,how
thankful I am to be alive.We have not lost any thing yet out of here.One gentleman
lent us a matress,two pillows, a blanket and a quilt.One night we had nothing but two
pillows and a bench.I ache terribly but hate to'complain.I sent you a piece of
cardboard yesterday but donlt know whether'you will get it. Do write to us when we get
to Los Gatos-we have made some friends out here and are getting along very well if I
can only keep well. We have nowhere so I guess we will survive,
Jennie Tiwena
Letter to "Father" 1115437
1906 Apr 18
Letter to "Flora" 1115443
1906 Apr 23
Box 1, folder 14
Evans-Wentz, Walter Y.: Letters relating to incident during 1906
earthquake
1112917
Wendell Ward, '07 1115445
1967 Oct 15
Sam Bryan, '10 1115447
1967 Oct 17
E. N. Squire, '42 1115449
1967 Nov 17
Samuel Bryan 1115451
1967 Nov 17
Barbara Baker, '51 1115453
1967 Dec 27
Philip S. Brooke, '16 1115455
1968 Jan 3
Wendall Ward, '07 1115457
1968 Jan
Ralph C. Pollock, '06 1115459
1968 Jan
Leo C. Stanley 1115461
1968 Jan 12
Mifflin War 1115463
1968 Jan 26
C. L. Severy, '08, 1115465
1968 Feb 8
Box 1, folder 15
Otto Gerdes Fund: Letter, photograph, and notebook re. fund 1112915
Box 1, folder 16
Official Statements of the University 1112913
David Starr Jordan (President of the University) 1115467
1906 Apr 19
S. F. Leib (President of the Board of Trustees) and David Starr
Jordan
1115469
1906 Jul 12
Box 1, folder 17
Brilstol's Recording Voltmeter: record of Earthquake, with accompanying note,
C.F. Elwell
1112911
1906, 1950 Nov
Box 1, folder 18
Correspondence and broadsides re: relief efforts 1112909
Harry C. Green to David Starr Jordan 1115471
1910 Feb 26
Notices to People of Palo Alto 1115473
Relief Pass Cards 1115475
Stanford Alumnus, "No Backward Step For
University," by David Starr Jordan
1115477
Box 1, folder 19
Letters to C. D. Marx re: Relief Work 1112907
Mansfield Merriman 1115481
1906 Apr 19
Ernest ? 1115483
1906 Apr 19
Charles E. Buell 1115485
1906 Apr 20
Dugald C. Jackson 1115487
1906 May 3
Box 7
Wallace, W.B. Accession ARCH-2015-0732331975
1906 June 7
Scope and Contents
An autograph letter signed "W.B. Wallace " on "Superior Court Chambers" letterhead.
He wrote to Mrs. Wallace M. Bartlett of Louisville, Kentucky:
"You must pardon me for the long delay in answering your letter reminding me of my
promise to visit my Kentucky kinsmen this year. Since April 18th a day of disaster in
this state all plans for the present year had to be re-formed and in many cases
abandoned. We have all been living in a state of uncertainty. Every day since April
18th up to last Monday has been a legal holiday. It became necessary for the Governor
to declare successive holidays in order that the banks throughout the state could
arrange to safely resume business and that the Legislature might be convened in extra
session and enact some new laws necessary to protect property rights suddenly
imperiled by the great calamity that befell San Francisco and other near by places on
that date. A cessation of judicial business for forty-five days has left the trial
courts with congested dockets rendering it necessary for most of the judges to
continue holding court during the usual summer period for vacation. Unhappily I find
myself in this situation and I will be unable to leave the state during his year ...
Fortunately none of us were injured by the great earthquake. The shock here was slight
and no property was injured. My daughter Ethel was at Stanford University when it
occurred. The University is about sixty miles from San Francisco. It suffered a loss
of about $4,000,000 in the destruction and injury of many fine buildings. Two lives
were lost one being that of a student and six other students were quite badly injured.
Communication with the outside world was immediately interrupted and it was several
days before we could get direct news from Ethel. She was not injured though when the
shock occurred near 5 o'clock in the morning she and her companions thought the world
was coming to an end when the furniture was being tossed about the room and she could
see the fine structures of the university falling into shapeless masses of stone. It
will be some time for our State to fully recover from the effects of so great a
calamity but San Francisco will be rebuilt because of its almost matchless harbor and
because it was proven that modern steel structures can stand uninjured after such an
earthquake. To many of us who have known that city almost all of our lives it will not
probably be the San Francisco of which we were so proud. The loss resulting from the
earthquake there has been estimated at not more than $70,000,000 but the great fire
with no water to stay its progress, increased the loss to thirty times that ... "
An autograph letter signed "W.B. Wallace " on "Superior Court Chambers" letterhead.
He wrote to Mrs. Wallace M. Bartlett of Louisville, Kentucky: "You must pardon me for
the long delay in answering your letter reminding me of my promise to visit my
Kentucky kinsmen this year. Since April 18th a day of disaster in this state all plans
for the present year had to be re-formed and in many cases abandoned. We have all been
living in a state of uncertainty. Every day since April 18th up to last Monday has
been a legal holiday. It became necessary for the Governor to declare successive
holidays in order that the banks throughout the state could arrange to safely resume
business and that the Legislature might be convened in extra session and enact some
new laws necessary to protect property rights suddenly imperiled by the great calamity
that befell San Francisco and other near by places on that date. A cessation of
judicial business for forty-five days has left the trial courts with congested dockets
rendering it necessary for most of the judges to continue holding court during the
usual summer period for vacation. Unhappily I find myself in this situation and I will
be unable to leave the state during his year ... Fortunately none of us were injured
by the great earthquake. The shock here was slight and no property was injured. My
daughter Ethel was at Stanford University when it occurred. The University is about
sixty miles from San Francisco. It suffered a loss of about $4,000,000 in the
destruction and injury of many fine buildings. Two lives were lost one being that of a
student and six other students were quite badly injured. Communication with the
outside world was immediately interrupted and it was several days before we could get
direct news from Ethel. She was not injured though when the shock occurred near 5
o'clock in the morning she and her companions thought the world was coming to an end
when the furniture was being tossed about the room and she could see the fine
structures of the university falling into shapeless masses of stone. It will be some
time for our State to fully recover from the effects of so great a calamity but San
Francisco will be rebuilt because of its almost matchless harbor and because it was
proven that modern steel structures can stand uninjured after such an earthquake. To
many of us who have known that city almost all of our lives it will not probably be
the San Francisco of which we were so proud. The loss resulting from the earthquake
there has been estimated at not more than $70,000,000 but the great fire with no water
to stay its progress, increased the loss to thirty times that ... "
Box 1, folder 21
Wing, Ah: eyewitness account 1112903
Box 1, folder 22
Wing, Ah: eyewitness account [photocopies] 1112901
Publications Series 21112819
Box 2, folder 1
Sandstone and Tile, Vol. 3, No. 2, Winter
1979: "The Days That Followed the Quake."
1112889
1979
Box 2, folder 2
Collier's, Vol. XXXVII, No. 6, "Memorial Arch,
Before and After"
1112887
1906 May 5
Box 2, folder 3
Engineering News, Journal of Civil,
Mechanical, Mining, and Electrical Engineering, Vol. LV, No. 19
1112885
1906 May 10
Box 2, folder 4
Mines and Industrie (Foreign Publication - in
French), San Francisco, pp. 12.
1112883
1906 Apr
Box 2, folder 5
Everybody's, "Our San Francisco," James Hopper
(2 copies)
1115493
1906 Jun
Box 2, folder 5
National Magazine, "The Ruins of Stanford,"
Myrtle Garrison
1112881
1906 Jun
Box 2, folder 5
Overland, "In the Realm of Bookland," Eleanore
F. Lewys
1115495
1906 Jun
Box 2, folder 5
Pacific Monthly, "The Destruction of San
Francisco," Marshall Douglas
1115497
1906 Jun
Box 2, folder 5
Pacific Monthly, "The San Francisco Disaster,
A Personal Narrative," F.O. Popenoe.
1115489
1906 Jun
Box 2, folder 5
Century, "Studying Earthquakes," T.A Jagger,
Jr.
1115491
1910 Aug
Box 2, folder 6
The New San Francisco Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 1,
Article by David Starr Jordan, San Francisco, California.
1112879
1906 May
Box 2, folder 7
Santa Rosa Republican
[photocopies]
1112877
1906 Apr 18
Box 2, folder 8
Signs of the Times
1112875
Earthquake Special 1115513
1906 May 2
Box 2, folder 8
Souvenir Edition 1115515
1906 Jun 27
Box 2, folder 9
The Daily Palo Alto
1112873
Special Edition 1115499
1906 Apr 18
Second Special Edition [4 copies] 1115501
1906 Apr 18
Special Edition [4 copies] 1115503
1906 Apr 19
Second Special Edition [2 copies] 1115505
1906 Apr 19
Regular Edition [4 copies] 1115507
1906 Apr 20
Special Edition [3 copies] 1115509
1906 Apr 20
Regular Edition 1115511
1906 Apr 21
Box 2, folder 10
Daily Palo Alto Times
1112871
Box 2, folder 10
Palo Alto Tribune
1115517
Extra 1115523
1906 Apr 18
Second Extra [2 copies] 1115525
1906 Apr 18
Box 2, folder 11
Oakland Enquirer
1112869
1906 Apr 20
Box 2, folder 12
San Francisco Examiner
1112867
1906 May 13
Box 2, folder 13
Mercury-Herald, Extra: San Jose,
Ca.
1112865
1906 Apr 18
Box 2, folder 13
The Evening News, Extra: San Jose,
Ca.
1115531
1906 Apr 18
Box 2, folder 13
San Jose Mercury
1115529
1906 Apr 26
Box 2, folder 13
San Jose Mercury and Herald (front
page)
1115533
1906 Apr 29
Box 2, folder 14
Clippings from newspapers across the country 1112863
The Oregonian, Portland, Oregon
1115547
1906 May 7
Vicksburg American, Vicksburg,
Mississippi
1115549
1906 May 26
Unidentified Clippings: articles and pictures 1115551
Box 2, folder 15
Los Angeles Times
1112861
1907 Apr 21
Box 2, folder 16
Daily Palo Alto Times
1112859
Box 2, folder 16
San Francisco Chronicle
1115535
1956 Apr 18
Box 2, folder 17
San Francisco Chronicle, Earthquake Edition (2
copies)
1112857
1906-1956, Apr 19
Box 2, folder 18
San Jose Mercury
1112855
1956 Apr 18
Box 2, folder 19
The Stanford Daily
1112853
Box 2, folder 20
Miscellaneous newspaper clippings on earthquakes (President Branner,
Professor Bailey Willis)
1112851
1913-1946
Box 3, folder 1
American Society of Civil Engineers
Transactions
, Vol. LIX, "The Effects of the San Francisco Earthquake of
April 18, 1906, on Engineering Construction."
1112849
1907
Box 3, folder 2
Cosmopolitan Magazine, Vol. XLI, No. 4, "Cause
of the Great Earthquake," Daivd Starr Jordan
1112847
1906 Aug
Box 3, folder 3
"The Great Earthquake, April 18, 1906: views of its calamitous results in San
Francisco and vicinity," Pacific Press Company
1112845
1906
Box 3, folder 4
Palo Alto 1906, Linda Dick, California History
Center, DeAnza College
1112843
1979
Box 3, folder 5
San Francisco--the imperishable San Francisco. Passenger Department, Southern
Pacific Co. Broadside, map, photos
1112841
[1906]
Box 3, folder 6
San Francisco: Official Memorial Souvenir, April 18, 1906 (Los Angeles,
Radial Co.)
1112839
1906
Box 3, folder 7
San Jose, Stanford University and vicinity, after the disaster, April 18,
1906. Los Angeles: Rieder-Cardinelli Co.
1112837
1906
Physical Description: 10 photographs
Box 3, folder 8
Scenes of the San Francisco fire and Earthquake, April 18, 1906. Series No. 2
San Francisco: Phoenix Photo Co.
1112835
1906
Physical Description: 16 photographs
Box 3, folder 9
Stanford Alumnus, Vol. 7, No. 8, "The Truth
about Stanford and the Earthquake"
1112833
1906 May
Box 3, folder 10
Sunset Magazine, Vol. XVII, No. 1, "New San
Francisco emergency edition"
1112831
1906 May
Box 3, folder 11
Taber, Stephen: "Some Local Effects of the San Francisco Earthquake." Reprint
from
The Journal of Geology, Vol. XIV, No.
4
1112829
1906 May-Jun
Box 3, folder 12
Earthquake Information Bulletin, "The 1906
Earthquake at Palo Alto, California: An Interview with Birge M. Clark," Henry
Spall
1112827
1901 Mar-Apr
Box 3, folder 13
Map of part of San Francisco, California, April 18, 1908 showing buildings
constructed and buildings under construction during two years after fire of April 18,
1906. Surveyed and drawn by Punnett Brothers.
1112825
1908
Box 3, folder 14
"Preliminary Report of the State Earthquake Investigation
Commission"
1112823
1906 May 31
Box 4, folder 1
Harper's Weekly. Cover features image of
damage to interior of Memorial Church.
1112821
1906 May 19
ARCH-2021-040 ARCH-2021-040
Box 1
6 photographs and class of 1909 memorabilia
Box 1
Additional Material Accession ARCH-2021-104
Physical Description: .25 Linear
Feet