[San Francisco Earthquake and Fire]: [Hughes, William H.]:

$2,250 · Offered by William Reese Company · No longer available

[COLLECTION OF TWENTY-NINE ORIGINAL SILVER ALBUMEN PHOTOGRAPHS TAKEN OF SAN FRANCISCO DURING AND IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE GREAT EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE OF 1906, SHOWING THE DEVASTATION IN THE CITY, AS WELL ... A remarkable collection of photographs taken immediately after the San Francisco earthquake and fires of April, 1906, showing the scope of the damage to the city, as well as providing a stark reminder of the human toll taken by what is considered one of the worst natural disasters in American history. Many of these images are apparently unpublished, having been produced by an Army engineer and used to accompany a report on earthquake relief efforts made for the United States Senate. Although there was a quick and immediate response from San Francisco's large military population, the earthquake and fires killed an estimated 3,000 people and left over 200,000 San Francisco residents homeless. Fifteen of the twenty-nine images in this collection are signed in the negative "Hughes Fort Mason" or simply "Hughes," and were almost certainly taken by Private William H. Hughes, a member of the First Battalion, Corps of Engineers stationed at Fort Mason, located on the bay at the northern edge of San Francisco. The other fourteen are not signed by a photographer, but some of them may have also been taken by Hughes. Troops from Fort Mason were the first military units to respond following the earthquake of April 18, 1906. There was no photography studio at Fort Mason in 1906, but Private

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