Charles L. Booth earthquake refugee camp letter book
Finding aid created by San Francisco History Center staff using RecordEXPRESS
San Francisco Public Library. San Francisco History Center
2022
San Francisco Public Library
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San Francisco, California 94102
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Title: Charles L. Booth earthquake refugee camp letter book
Dates: 1906-1907
Collection Number: SFH 694
Creator/Collector:
Booth, Charles Lawrence, 1876-1953.
Extent: 1 volume
Repository:
San Francisco Public Library. San Francisco History Center
San Francisco, California 94102
Abstract: Letter book of camp commander and physician Dr. Charles L. Booth
Language of Material: English
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for publication is given on behalf of the San Francisco Public Library as the owner of the physical items.
Charles L. Booth earthquake refugee camp letter book. San Francisco Public Library. San Francisco History Center
Biography/Administrative History
Charles Lawrence Booth was born in Montana, the son of Colonel Charles Austin Booth, U.S.A. of Vergennes, Vermont. C. L.
Booth graduated from the Baltimore (Maryland) School of Medicine in 1898. He then spent several months working in military
hospitals. In 1904 he was working as a physician in Los Angeles, and in the aftermath of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake
and fire became refugee camp commander in Golden Gate Park and later at Precita Park. By 1910 he was practicing in Milwaukee,
and by 1918 had moved to Spartanburg, SC, working as acting Assistant Surgeon for the U.S. Public Health Service. He remained
there until his death in 1953.
Scope and Content of Collection
Letters, hand copied, from Camp No. 7, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, May 18, 1906 to June 27, 1906, signed by Edward F.
Geddings, Capt. Asst. Surgeon, US Army Camp Surgeon. Letters, June 28, 1906 to July 1, 1906, signed by C. A. Morris, Civilian
Physician in charge of Camp No. 7. Letters to Adjutant Permanent Camps, San Francisco. Correspondence to and from Dr. C. L.
Booth, Camp Commander, June 19, 1906 to October 28, 1907, the bulk addressed from Hdqrs. Camp 23 Precita Av. and Folsom St.
(July 15, 1906-Sept. 27, 1907) to Executive officer, Gough and Geary Sts. (Camp, Food and Warehouse Dept. of San Francisco
Relief and Red Cross Funds) and to Auditor at same office. On August 1, 1906, the care of the camps passed from the Army to
the civilian San Francisco Relief and Red Cross Funds, a corporation, specifically to its Department of Camps and Warehouses.
Volume includes rent rolls for Camp 23, lists of cottages removed from the camp, and a notice from Department of Public Health.
The volume comprises 241 numbered pages; pages 67-90 have been torn from volume. A portrait photograph is pasted on page
60; one sheet of Reconstruction Postal Cards, published by San Francisco Sunday Examiner is laid in; Oct. 31, 1850 issue of
Christian Repository (Montpelier, Vermont) laid in.
Earthquake relief--California--San Francisco.
San Francisco Earthquake and Fire, Calif., 1906.
Disaster relief--California--San Francisco--History--20th century.
Morris, Charles Alfred, 1872-1941
Geddings, Edward Frost, 1868-1942
San Francisco Relief and Red Cross Funds, a Corporation
San Francisco (Calif.)