I heard an interesting piece on NPR this morning about the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and subsequent fire (the online version of the story is well written, and provides a good summary of events). The focus of the piece was the discovery** by Richard Monaco of steel cases his grandfather had interred in the walls of their house (and which had subsequently been forgotten) which contained, among other things, undeveloped negatives of pictures his grandfather had taken of the fire and it's aftermath. The pictures are available here. They provide a fascinating glimpse into the disaster.
*-ish. See "**" for details.
**Oddly enough, though I got the impression from the piece that the discovery was recent, the online article states that they were discovered in the 1970s. Given that, I'm not sure why they decided to air the story today, as opposed to doing so on the 18th, the hundredth anniversary of the disaster.
Posted by The Pixiest (Member # 1863) on :
From what I understand, city fathers back in 1906 grossly underestimated the casualties from the earthquake/fire. Best guesses these days put the total at over 3000 as opposed to the official total of less than 500.
City fathers were afraid such a horrific death toll would scare away Eastern investors.
Pix
Posted by Amilia (Member # 8912) on :
I just saw this on Google Video Picks. Can I just say how amazed I am at how sharp the images are? And I am now really worried about those people. Where they able to get out safely or not?
Posted by Icarus (Member # 3162) on :
erm, why doesn't the camera seem to be moving?
Posted by CaySedai (Member # 6459) on :
On Google Video Picks, there is a link to www.archivefilms.com. That link is to creative.gettyimages.com. If you do a search for earthquake historical reenactment under film/advanced film search, you will find three separate films, two of which are this one but from different angles. One of the films has this caption:
quote:Caption: 1900s reenactment wide shot building facade crumbling and falling apart during earthquake
The film that matches the one on Google has this caption:
quote:Caption: B/W 1906 buildings shaking + falling apart in earthquake / couple panic in room of building (model)
That would explain why the camera isn't moving.
Posted by Icarus (Member # 3162) on :
I figured something like that. Posted by Amilia (Member # 8912) on :
Ahhh. Well, that means that the people in the room were probably OK, then. :-)
Also, the other veiw of this clip (which for some reason, I cannot link directly to) has a subject heading: "Image Created 1960s." Which explains why footage from the 1906 earthquake would be so sharp and crisp.
Oh, well. Thanks for straightening me out, CaySedai!
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