After the Tremor: A Citizen’s Witness to the Ruin of San Francisco, 1906” (watermarks do not appear on the actual photograph.)
After the Tremor: A Citizen’s Witness to the Ruin of San Francisco, 1906” (watermarks do not appear on the actual photograph.)
After the Tremor: A Citizen’s Witness to the Ruin of San Francisco, 1906” (watermarks do not appear on the actual photograph.)
After the Tremor: A Citizen’s Witness to the Ruin of San Francisco, 1906” (watermarks do not appear on the actual photograph.)
After the Tremor: A Citizen’s Witness to the Ruin of San Francisco, 1906” (watermarks do not appear on the actual photograph.)
After the Tremor: A Citizen’s Witness to the Ruin of San Francisco, 1906” (watermarks do not appear on the actual photograph.)
After the Tremor: A Citizen’s Witness to the Ruin of San Francisco, 1906” (watermarks do not appear on the actual photograph.)
After the Tremor: A Citizen’s Witness to the Ruin of San Francisco, 1906” (watermarks do not appear on the actual photograph.)
After the Tremor: A Citizen’s Witness to the Ruin of San Francisco, 1906” (watermarks do not appear on the actual photograph.)
After the Tremor: A Citizen’s Witness to the Ruin of San Francisco, 1906” (watermarks do not appear on the actual photograph.)
After the Tremor: A Citizen’s Witness to the Ruin of San Francisco, 1906” (watermarks do not appear on the actual photograph.)
After the Tremor: A Citizen’s Witness to the Ruin of San Francisco, 1906” (watermarks do not appear on the actual photograph.)
After the Tremor: A Citizen’s Witness to the Ruin of San Francisco, 1906” (watermarks do not appear on the actual photograph.)
After the Tremor: A Citizen’s Witness to the Ruin of San Francisco, 1906” (watermarks do not appear on the actual photograph.)
After the Tremor: A Citizen’s Witness to the Ruin of San Francisco, 1906” (watermarks do not appear on the actual photograph.)
After the Tremor: A Citizen’s Witness to the Ruin of San Francisco, 1906” (watermarks do not appear on the actual photograph.)
After the Tremor: A Citizen’s Witness to the Ruin of San Francisco, 1906” (watermarks do not appear on the actual photograph.)
After the Tremor: A Citizen’s Witness to the Ruin of San Francisco, 1906” (watermarks do not appear on the actual photograph.)
After the Tremor: A Citizen’s Witness to the Ruin of San Francisco, 1906” (watermarks do not appear on the actual photograph.)
After the Tremor: A Citizen’s Witness to the Ruin of San Francisco, 1906” (watermarks do not appear on the actual photograph.)
After the Tremor: A Citizen’s Witness to the Ruin of San Francisco, 1906” (watermarks do not appear on the actual photograph.)
After the Tremor: A Citizen’s Witness to the Ruin of San Francisco, 1906” (watermarks do not appear on the actual photograph.)
After the Tremor: A Citizen’s Witness to the Ruin of San Francisco, 1906” (watermarks do not appear on the actual photograph.)
After the Tremor: A Citizen’s Witness to the Ruin of San Francisco, 1906” (watermarks do not appear on the actual photograph.)
25 Photographs detailing the aftermath of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. (watermarks do not appear on the actual photograph.)
25 Photographs detailing the aftermath of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. (verso.)
25 Photographs detailing the aftermath of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. (watermarks do not appear on the actual photograph.)
25 Photographs detailing the aftermath of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. (verso.)
a group of 25 gelatin silver prints, 1906; accompanied by a letter of provenance
Claud R. Jewell
8.3 x 8.9 cm
Further images
-
(View a larger image of thumbnail 1
)
-
(View a larger image of thumbnail 2
)
-
(View a larger image of thumbnail 3
)
-
(View a larger image of thumbnail 4
)
-
(View a larger image of thumbnail 5
)
-
(View a larger image of thumbnail 6
)
-
(View a larger image of thumbnail 7
)
-
(View a larger image of thumbnail 8
)
-
(View a larger image of thumbnail 9
)
-
(View a larger image of thumbnail 10
)
-
(View a larger image of thumbnail 11
)
-
(View a larger image of thumbnail 12
)
-
(View a larger image of thumbnail 13
)
-
(View a larger image of thumbnail 14
)
-
(View a larger image of thumbnail 15
)
-
(View a larger image of thumbnail 16
)
-
(View a larger image of thumbnail 17
)
-
(View a larger image of thumbnail 18
)
-
(View a larger image of thumbnail 19
)
-
(View a larger image of thumbnail 20
)
-
(View a larger image of thumbnail 21
)
-
(View a larger image of thumbnail 22
)
-
(View a larger image of thumbnail 23
)
-
(View a larger image of thumbnail 24
)
-
(View a larger image of thumbnail 25
)
-
(View a larger image of thumbnail 26
)
-
(View a larger image of thumbnail 27
)
-
(View a larger image of thumbnail 28
)
-
(View a larger image of thumbnail 29
)
The Claud R. Jewell Earthquake Photographs — A Unique Family Archive a group of 25 gelatin silver prints, 1906; accompanied by a letter of provenance
18 photographs: 3¼ by 3½ in. (8.3 by 8.9 cm.)
7 photographs: 3¼ by 2½ in. (8.3 by 6.34 cm.)
In the early morning hours of April 18, 1906, San Francisco was violently shaken by one of the most devastating earthquakes in American history. Within minutes, buildings collapsed. Within hours, fires consumed entire districts. By the time the smoke cleared, over 3,000 people were dead and more than 80 percent of the city lay in ruins.
This extraordinary and deeply personal collection of twenty-five gelatin silver photographs was taken and developed by Claud R. Jewell, a resident of San Francisco, in the immediate aftermath of the disaster.
Unlike widely distributed commercial views produced by professional studios for mass sale, these photographs are intimate, one-of-a-kind survivor documents — personal snapshots made by a man walking through the broken heart of his own city.
The group presents a haunting and remarkably varied visual record of destruction:
• The shattered dome and skeletal remains of City Hall, its once-proud Beaux-Arts architecture reduced to fractured masonry
• Leaning façades and hollowed commercial blocks standing like burned stage sets
• Vast fields of rubble stretching to the horizon
• Residential neighborhoods stripped to foundations
• Streets choked with debris and abandoned streetcar lines
• Citizens lining up for aid
• Workers clearing ruins
• Carriages moving cautiously through devastation
• Figures standing silently, surveying what once had been home
Some images are tightly framed — intimate, almost stunned in their quietness. Others open into vast urban landscapes where smoke and dust soften the horizon into a ghostly haze.
Small in scale, yet monumental in historical weight. The modest size reinforces their private nature — likely contact prints from a personal camera, developed by Jewell himself shortly after exposure. These are not spectacle photographs. They are lived photographs.
In several photographs, small human figures appear dwarfed by ruin — lining up for assistance, clearing debris, or simply standing still. The city had not yet been rebuilt. Insurance disputes had not yet been settled. The great reconstruction had not begun.
What we see here is the moment between catastrophe and recovery — the suspended breath of a broken metropolis.
These images carry not only historical weight, but human gravity.
Provenance
Photographed and developed by Claud R. Jewell of San Francisco in 1906.
Collection of the photographer by descent through family
C. Wilfred Jewell and Mrs. Hilary Martin (son and daughter)
Swann Auction Galleries, New York, 18 December 2018, Sale 2489, Lot 337
Pilara Family Foundation
Past in Present.com Inc private historical archive.
Accompanied by a handwritten family letter stating:
“These pictures were taken and developed by Claud R. Jewell of the San Francisco earthquake in 1906. Donated by his son and daughter…”
This documented lineage from the photographer through direct family descent distinguishes the collection from anonymous or commercially reproduced earthquake imagery.