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San Francisco Earthquake and Fire Photographs by the Miles Brothers, 1906
BANC PIC 19xx.181--PIC
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Collection Title: San Francisco Earthquake and Fire Photographs by the Miles Brothers
Date: 1906
Collection Number: BANC PIC 19xx.181--PIC
Creator:
Miles Brothers
Extent:
43 glass plate negatives
35 digital objects
Repository: The Bancroft Library.
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, CA 94720-6000
Phone: (510) 642-6481
Fax: (510) 642-7589
Email: bancref@library.berkeley.edu
URL: http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/
Languages Represented: Collection materials are in English
Original glass plate negatives restricted. Use viewing prints with call no. BANC PIC 19xx.181--PIC.
Copyright has not been assigned to The Bancroft Library. All requests for permission to publish photographs must be submitted
in writing to the Curator of Pictorial Collections. Permission for publication is given on behalf of The Bancroft Library
as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must
also be obtained by the reader.
Copyright restrictions also apply to digital representations of the original materials. Use of digital files is restricted
to research and educational purposes.
[Identification of item], San Francisco Earthquake and Fire Photographs by the Miles Brothers, 1906, BANC PIC 19xx.181--PIC,
The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley
Digital Representations Available
Digital representations of selected original pictorial materials are available in the list of materials below. Digital image
files were prepared from selected Library originals by the Library Photographic Service. Library originals were copied onto
35mm color transparency film; the film was scanned and transferred to Kodak Photo CD (by Custom Process); and the Photo CD
files were color-corrected and saved in JFIF (JPEG) format for use as viewing files.
Unknown.
The Miles brothers (Harry, Herbert, and Earl C.) were film exhibitors who established the first motion picture exchange in
the United States in San Francisco in 1902. Prior to this they and other exhibitors had to purchase movies directly from the
makers. Brother Harry came up with the idea of renting films to exhibitors, an idea that forever changed the growing industry.
Under the Miles Brothers Motion Picture Company, the brothers produced "actualities," filmed records of local views and current
events. They were also active in foreign film distribution and the development of early storefront theaters (nickelodeons).
In 1906, they constructed an elaborate studio in San Francisco with the intention of making narrative films. Had the earthquake
and fire not destroyed their facility (before a single film was produced), they might have become major producers. They continued
to make actualities through 1907, establishing a reputation for filming important boxing matches. The exchange was still in
business as of 1915 on Mission Street in San Francisco, as noted in “Miles Brothers, Pioneers” (
The Moving Picture World, July 10, 1915, p. 248).
Souces: Bell, Geoffrey.
The Golden Gate and the Silver Screen. Rutherford, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1984. p. 100-104. Musser, Charles.
The Emergence of Cinema: The American Screen to 1907. New York, Charles Scribner's, 1990. p. 484.
The collection consists of 43 glass plate negatives from which copy prints have been made. The photographs are primarily of
street scenes and buildings damaged or destroyed by the 1906 earthquake and fire. Also included are two shots of the Miles
brothers, two of boxer Jim Jeffries, and a few unidentified photos. Most of the photographs bear the company's name and a
photograph number. The original glass plates are not available for use.
Sources: Bell, Geoffrey.
The Golden Gate and the Silver Screen. Rutherford, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1984. p. 100-104
Musser, Charles.
The Emergence of Cinema: the American Screen to 1907 . New York, Charles Scribner's, 1990. p. 484