I’ve been puzzled by these two images, and the location of the rescue they depict.
Note that these versions are cropped, and that links to the full online archive versions are at the end of this post.
The first image has been used in several publications (see below), and is said to show the scene at the collapse of the New Brunswick Hotel. There are written accounts that describe large loss of life at the New Brunswick, one of several lodging houses or hotels that collapsed in the SOMA district.
The second image is described as showing the scene at the collapsed Wilcox Building (or Wilcox House), a lodging house on the corner of Jessie and Second streets.
Clearly they show the same event, with the photos taken possibly only moments apart. The “New Brunswick” image in this archive is attributed to Whigham Photos, while the “Wilcox House” image is attributed to the Bear Photo Company. However, it is possible they were taken by the same photographer as images from the earthquake were reproduced from prints as well as the original negatives, with apparently a solid trade in pirated images.
Further clouding the issue — accounts of the New Brunswick Hotel collapse variously describe it as located at Sixth and Howard Streets, Sixth and Folsom Streets, or even Mission Street.
However, I believe these rescue images come from the Wilcox House collapse, at Jessie and Second Streets. I’ll explain why in a separate post.
These images are interesting because they show such a dramatic moment at human scale. I’m not aware of any other photos from April 18 taken at close range that show the injured actually being pulled from the rubble. These days we expect close-ups as part of the photojournalistic approach, but I imagine the cameras/film stock of the day were only just starting to allow these sorts of images to be captured effectively. An odd point, but there also aren’t many 1906 images that I’ve seen showing firemen wearing the leather(?) helmet. This becomes an issue when trying to place the above images by picking out the firemen in crowd scenes.
And of course I’d love to know what happened to the fellow being attended to.
Publications using the “New Brunswick” image
William Bronson’s The earth shook the sky burned, first published in 1959 and then re-published for the centenary in 2006 (ISBN 0811850471) . I love this book, but I think the caption on page 37 is off the mark: “Firemen lift an injured man from the splintered ruins of the Brunswick Hotel on Mission Street”. I think Bronson also gets another photo of the Wilcox House scene totally wrong on page 36, but more on that elsewhere. But honest, I really do think this is a great collection of images and stories. I’ve lugged it back and forth across the Pacific a couple of times.
Richard Schwartz’s 2005 publication Earthquake exodus, 1906 (ISBN 0967820413), which captions the image on page 30: “A rare photo of San Francisco firemen rescuing an earthquake victim from the wreckage of the Brunswick Hotel at Sixth and Howard”. Again, generally a good book but I think this caption is mistaken.
I would welcome comments on this post.
Credits & links to online archive images
There are now some great digital archives and search tools available online. I’ve been using this one hosted by The Bancroft Library at Berkeley:
http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/collections/earthquakeandfire/index2.html
“Brunswick Hotel”
Courtesy of California Historical Society, North Baker Research Library, 678 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA 94105-4014
http://content.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/hb4v19p151/?brand=eqf
“Wilcox House”
Courtesy of California State Library, Stanley Mosk Library and Courts Building, 914 Capitol Mall, Sacramento, CA 95814
http://content.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/hb5s20070n/?brand=eqf
