1906
After the Quake: Earliest Known Color Photographs of San Francisco
A rare look at the city, six months after its devastation
October 1906
Street-level view of earthquake-damaged San Francisco, Market St. Flood Building
Not in history has a modern imperial city been so completely destroyed. San Francisco is gone.
JACK LONDON, 1906
At 5:12 a.m. on April 18, 1906, an earthquake hit San Francisco. By today's measurements, it would register at a magnitude of 7.8.
Within four days, 80% of the city was utterly destroyed by the Earth's upheaval and fire. Out of a population of 410,000, between one-half and three-quarters became homeless; up to 3,000 people died.
Fires burned for four days and nights, causing the vast majority of the city's devastation and destroying 25,000 buildings.
Six months later, inventor Frederick Eugene Ives arrived in the ruins, carrying one of his creations: the photochromoscope, a very early color and 3D camera. Commercially available since 1897, Ives used the device to capture these four images, reproduced here as single frames, and in their original stereo pairs.
October 1906
Street-level view of earthquake-damaged San Francisco, showing the Flood Building on Market Street.
October 1906
Van Ness Ave. City Hall R. - Rooftop-view of earthquake-damaged San Francisco
October 1906
Van Ness Ave. City Hall R. - Rooftop-view of earthquake-damaged San Francisco
October 1906
Street-level view of earthquake-damaged San Francisco near City Hall, looking North East
The 3D, or stereoscopic, images were captured using a technology that Ives had patented. Stereoscopic photographs had existed since the early 1850s; Ives' innovation was to use a "parallax barrier" system, meaning that someone viewing the image did not need to wear any special glasses or headgear. The same system is used today by the Nintendo 3DS.
October 1906
Street-level view of earthquake-damaged San Francisco near City Hall, looking North East
October 1906
Rooftop-view of earthquake-damaged San Francisco - Sutter St. looking east from the top of Majestic Hall
October 1906
Rooftop-view of earthquake-damaged San Francisco - Sutter St. looking east from the top of Majestic Hall
More than a century later, in 2009, the pictures were were rediscovered at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History by volunteer Anthony Brooks. They are the earliest known color photographs of San Francisco.
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