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A Complete Set of Earthquake and Fire Views”, Shaw & Shaw’s Monumental Record of the Ruin of San Francisco, 1906. (No. 85)
A Complete Set of Earthquake and Fire Views”, Shaw & Shaw’s Monumental Record of the Ruin of San Francisco, 1906. (No. 85)
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A Complete Set of Earthquake and Fire Views”, Shaw & Shaw’s Monumental Record of the Ruin of San Francisco, 1906. (No. 70.)
A Complete Set of Earthquake and Fire Views”, Shaw & Shaw’s Monumental Record of the Ruin of San Francisco, 1906. (No. 70.)
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A Complete Set of Earthquake and Fire Views”, Shaw & Shaw’s Monumental Record of the Ruin of San Francisco, 1906. Overlooking the city (No. 28)
A Complete Set of Earthquake and Fire Views”, Shaw & Shaw’s Monumental Record of the Ruin of San Francisco, 1906. Overlooking the city (No. 28)
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A Complete Set of Earthquake and Fire Views”, Shaw & Shaw’s Monumental Record of the Ruin of San Francisco, 1906. Fairmont (No. 111.)
A Complete Set of Earthquake and Fire Views”, Shaw & Shaw’s Monumental Record of the Ruin of San Francisco, 1906. Fairmont (No. 111.)
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A Complete Set of Earthquake and Fire Views”, Shaw & Shaw’s Monumental Record of the Ruin of San Francisco, 1906. Looking up Kerney Street (No. 15.)
A Complete Set of Earthquake and Fire Views”, Shaw & Shaw’s Monumental Record of the Ruin of San Francisco, 1906. Looking up Kerney Street (No. 15.)
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A Complete Set of Earthquake and Fire Views”, Shaw & Shaw’s Monumental Record of the Ruin of San Francisco, 1906. Y.M.C.A. Hale Bros in Distance (No. 95 ).
A Complete Set of Earthquake and Fire Views”, Shaw & Shaw’s Monumental Record of the Ruin of San Francisco, 1906. Y.M.C.A. Hale Bros in Distance (No. 95 ).
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A Complete Set of Earthquake and Fire Views”, Shaw & Shaw’s Monumental Record of the Ruin of San Francisco, 1906. View over San Francisco (No. 89)
A Complete Set of Earthquake and Fire Views”, Shaw & Shaw’s Monumental Record of the Ruin of San Francisco, 1906. View over San Francisco (No. 89)
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A Complete Set of Earthquake and Fire Views”, Shaw & Shaw’s Monumental Record of the Ruin of San Francisco, 1906. Collapsed Building (No. 88)
A Complete Set of Earthquake and Fire Views”, Shaw & Shaw’s Monumental Record of the Ruin of San Francisco, 1906. Collapsed Building (No. 88)
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A Complete Set of Earthquake and Fire Views”, Shaw & Shaw’s Monumental Record of the Ruin of San Francisco, 1906. Golden Gate Avenue, 800 Block (No. 83)
A Complete Set of Earthquake and Fire Views”, Shaw & Shaw’s Monumental Record of the Ruin of San Francisco, 1906. Golden Gate Avenue, 800 Block (No. 83)
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A Complete Set of Earthquake and Fire Views”, Shaw & Shaw’s Monumental Record of the Ruin of San Francisco, 1906.California Masonic Memorial Temple (No. 06.)
A Complete Set of Earthquake and Fire Views”, Shaw & Shaw’s Monumental Record of the Ruin of San Francisco, 1906.California Masonic Memorial Temple (No. 06.)
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A Complete Set of Earthquake and Fire Views”, Shaw & Shaw’s Monumental Record of the Ruin of San Francisco, 1906. Girls' High School (No. 18.)
A Complete Set of Earthquake and Fire Views”, Shaw & Shaw’s Monumental Record of the Ruin of San Francisco, 1906. Girls' High School (No. 18.)
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A Complete Set of Earthquake and Fire Views”, Shaw & Shaw’s Monumental Record of the Ruin of San Francisco, 1906. Hall of records, Santa Rosa (No. 93.)
A Complete Set of Earthquake and Fire Views”, Shaw & Shaw’s Monumental Record of the Ruin of San Francisco, 1906. Hall of records, Santa Rosa (No. 93.)
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A Complete Set of Earthquake and Fire Views”, Shaw & Shaw’s Monumental Record of the Ruin of San Francisco, 1906. Ferry Clock Stope by the Earthquake (No. 4)
A Complete Set of Earthquake and Fire Views”, Shaw & Shaw’s Monumental Record of the Ruin of San Francisco, 1906. Ferry Clock Stope by the Earthquake (No. 4)
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A Complete Set of Earthquake and Fire Views”, Shaw & Shaw’s Monumental Record of the Ruin of San Francisco, 1906. 4 Story Hotel Where 30 People Were Killed’ (No. 26.)
A Complete Set of Earthquake and Fire Views”, Shaw & Shaw’s Monumental Record of the Ruin of San Francisco, 1906. 4 Story Hotel Where 30 People Were Killed’ (No. 26.)
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A Complete Set of Earthquake and Fire Views”, Shaw & Shaw’s Monumental Record of the Ruin of San Francisco, 1906. Butchertown house (No. 22.)
A Complete Set of Earthquake and Fire Views”, Shaw & Shaw’s Monumental Record of the Ruin of San Francisco, 1906. Butchertown house (No. 22.)
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A Complete Set of Earthquake and Fire Views”, Shaw & Shaw’s Monumental Record of the Ruin of San Francisco, 1906. Van Ness Ave. at Vallejo St. (No. 47)
A Complete Set of Earthquake and Fire Views”, Shaw & Shaw’s Monumental Record of the Ruin of San Francisco, 1906. Van Ness Ave. at Vallejo St. (No. 47)
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A Complete Set of Earthquake and Fire Views”, Shaw & Shaw’s Monumental Record of the Ruin of San Francisco, 1906. Van Ness Ave. (No. 62.)
A Complete Set of Earthquake and Fire Views”, Shaw & Shaw’s Monumental Record of the Ruin of San Francisco, 1906. Van Ness Ave. (No. 62.)
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A Complete Set of Earthquake and Fire Views”, Shaw & Shaw’s Monumental Record of the Ruin of San Francisco, 1906. 18 St. Between Folsom-Howard (No. 63)
A Complete Set of Earthquake and Fire Views”, Shaw & Shaw’s Monumental Record of the Ruin of San Francisco, 1906. 18 St. Between Folsom-Howard (No. 63)
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A Complete Set of Earthquake and Fire Views”, Shaw & Shaw’s Monumental Record of the Ruin of San Francisco, 1906. Post Office Mission Street (No. 84)
A Complete Set of Earthquake and Fire Views”, Shaw & Shaw’s Monumental Record of the Ruin of San Francisco, 1906. Post Office Mission Street (No. 84)
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A Complete Set of Earthquake and Fire Views”, Shaw & Shaw’s Monumental Record of the Ruin of San Francisco, 1906. Brick Road. (No. 100.)
A Complete Set of Earthquake and Fire Views”, Shaw & Shaw’s Monumental Record of the Ruin of San Francisco, 1906. Brick Road. (No. 100.)
Shaw & Shaw
“A Complete Set of Earthquake and Fire Views”, Shaw & Shaw’s Monumental Record of the Ruin of San Francisco, 1906, 1906
A group of 20 gelatin silver vintage photographs
6 1/2 x 8 1/2 in
16.5 x 21.6 cm
16.5 x 21.6 cm
Shaw & Shaw
PH14327
Currency:
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Select Images Documenting the Aftermath of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and Fire Shaw & Shaw’s Monumental Record of the Ruin of San Francisco, 1906 A group of 20 gelatin...
Select Images Documenting the Aftermath of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and Fire
Shaw & Shaw’s Monumental Record of the Ruin of San Francisco, 1906
A group of 20 gelatin silver prints, several captioned in the negative or with ink captions in the margin, most with a 'Shaw & Shaw’ credit stamp on the reverse, 1906
various sizes to 8½ by 6½ in. (21.6 by 16.5 cm.)
The 1906 earthquake and subsequent fires destroyed over 80 percent of San Francisco. Entire districts burned for days. Infrastructure collapsed across the Bay Area, including Santa Rosa and Oakland. Over 28,000 buildings were lost. Tens of thousands were displaced. In April 1906, San Francisco became a city of fractures — streets split open, domes shattered, brick façades collapsed like paper scenery. Shaw & Shaw were there to record it. In one haunting image, cobblestones part down the center of a street like a wound through the city itself. In another, facades lean inward as if the earth had exhaled beneath them.
What is striking is the tension between scale and humanity. Some photographs are almost eerily empty — silence after violence.
Others show crowds gathering, as if witnessing a theatrical tragedy staged by nature itself. The most dramatic images reveal something even more unsettling than collapsed facades: the earth itself split wide. Streets gape open in long, violent fractures, as if the city had been ripped from below. In these photographs, one senses the raw terror of that morning — when stability vanished, and the ground under human feet became uncertain and frighteningly alive. The city appears skeletal — stripped to brick, beams, and horizon. And yet, the Ferry Building still stands. The dome of Fairmount rises through smoke. Life hovers between collapse and reconstruction. These images capture that suspended moment — when the earth had already moved, but the rebuilding had not yet begun.Provenance
Most credited to Shaw & Shaw, with a hand stamp noting "A Complete Set of Earthquake and Fire Views of San Francisco, Cal.
Swann Auction Galleries, New York, 11 March 2021, Sale 2561, Lot 357
Pilara Family Foundation