SH Archive Single Photo: Looking Down Sacramento Street, San Francisco, April 18, 1906

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Forgive me if this is already in one of the 1906 San Francisco threads, I didn't seem to find it if it was. I don't recall seeing this picture posted here before and it's worth another look anyway. It's a little... odd, if you ask me. People were pretty brave back then... or watching the show?



Looking Down Sacramento Street, San Francisco, April 18, 1906 is a black and white photograph taken by Arnold Genthe in San Francisco, California on the morning of April 18, 1906 in the wake of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.

From As I Remember by Arnold Genthe: This photograph shows "the results of the earth quake, the beginning of the fire and the attitude of the people."...

...I found that my hand cameras had been so damaged by the falling plaster as to be rendered useless. I went to Montgomery Street to the shop of George Kahn, my dealer, and asked him to lend me a camera. 'Take anything you want. This place is going to burn up anyway.' I selected the best small camera, a 3A Kodak Special. I stuffed my pockets with films and started out.... Of the pictures I had made during the fire, there are several, I believe, that will be of lasting interest. There is particularly the one scene that I recorded the morning of the first day of the fire [along Sacramento Street, looking toward the Bay] which shows, in a pictorially effective composition, the results of the earthquake, the beginning of the fire and the attitude of the people. On the right is a house, the front of which had collapsed into the street. The occupants are sitting on chairs calmly watching the approach of the fire. Groups of people are standing in the street, motionless, gazing at the clouds of smoke. When the fire crept up close, they would just move up a block. It is hard to believe that such a scene actually occurred in the way the photograph represents it. Several people upon seeing it have exclaimed, "Oh, is that a still from a Cecil De Mille picture?" To which the answer has been, "No. the director of this scene was the Lord himself." A few months ago an interview about my work--I had told the story of that fire picture--appeared in a New York paper with the headline, "His pictures posed by the Lord, says photographer."

It's like when in a movie, one of the characters points out a plot hole... Doesn't forgive it, it's still bad writing.

Related:

Single photo: San Francisco post-1906 Fire. Cooking in the street

Who nuked San Francisco in 1906?

Edit: I suck, it does appear here: Who nuked San Francisco in 1906?.

Still think its worth a closer look.

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Username: Starmonkey
Date: 2020-02-21 05:14:46
Reaction Score: 1

Or listening to it. Doesn't look that windy...
Weren't they blowing stuff up to try and starve the fire, but really just helping it spread? Or gas lines exploding.
Worse? Or BETTER?

 

[JimDuyer]

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Username: Jim Duyer
Date: 2020-02-22 17:18:40
Reaction Score: 3

Forgive me if this is already in one of the 1906 San Francisco threads, I didn't seem to find it if it was. I don't recall seeing this picture posted here before and it's worth another look anyway. It's a little... odd, if you ask me. People were pretty brave back then... or watching the show?

View attachment 41046

Looking Down Sacramento Street, San Francisco, April 18, 1906 is a black and white photograph taken by Arnold Genthe in San Francisco, California on the morning of April 18, 1906 in the wake of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.



It's like when in a movie, one of the characters points out a plot hole... Doesn't forgive it, it's still bad writing.

Related:

Single photo: San Francisco post-1906 Fire. Cooking in the street

Who nuked San Francisco in 1906?

Edit: I suck, it does appear here: Who nuked San Francisco in 1906?.

Still think its worth a closer look.

No. 3A Autographic Kodak Special

3 and 3A Autographic Kodak Special, from Kodak 1925 catalog scanned by Dirk HR Spennemann (Image rights)

A historically significant model, this is thought to be the first coupled rangefinder camera model ever sold, beginning circa 1916[1]. Its 1916 price of USD $109.50 would be equivalent to over $2,200 today

Strange, the dates don't seem to match, unless he meant the The No. 3A Folding Pocket Kodak was a folding bed camera for making exposures in 3¼×5½ inch postcard format on type No. 122 rollfilm. It was introduced by Kodak in 1903 and made until 1915. The folding pocket was invented prior to that earthquake, if it was one.

 

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Username: jd755
Date: 2020-02-22 18:26:27
Reaction Score: 3

Here's the source of all the digital versions of the photo, digital itself of course! http://cdn.calisphere.org/data/13030/sz/hb200005sz/files/hb200005sz-FID4.jpg

 

[Archive]

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Username: Starmonkey
Date: 2020-02-22 19:07:11
Reaction Score: 1

No. 3A Autographic Kodak Special

3 and 3A Autographic Kodak Special, from Kodak 1925 catalog scanned by Dirk HR Spennemann (Image rights)

A historically significant model, this is thought to be the first coupled rangefinder camera model ever sold, beginning circa 1916[1]. Its 1916 price of USD $109.50 would be equivalent to over $2,200 today

Strange, the dates don't seem to match, unless he meant the The No. 3A Folding Pocket Kodak was a folding bed camera for making exposures in 3¼×5½ inch postcard format on type No. 122 rollfilm. It was introduced by Kodak in 1903 and made until 1915. The folding pocket was invented prior to that earthquake, if it was one.

Brownie came out in 1900, I believe. Not sure of its capabilities, but whatever captured that pre-destruction panorama was pretty accurate, and that was late 1800s.

 

[JimDuyer]

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Username: Jim Duyer
Date: 2020-02-22 21:57:48
Reaction Score: 3

Brownie came out in 1900, I believe. Not sure of its capabilities, but whatever captured that pre-destruction panorama was pretty accurate, and that was late 1800s.

Why are nearly everyone wearing black?

 

[Archive]

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Username: Starmonkey
Date: 2020-02-22 22:32:56
Reaction Score: 2

Why are nearly everyone wearing black?

It was the style of the times. Just couldn't get enough of that old Victorian ruff.
Then, I GUESS, in the twenties things got CRAZY.
You see more diversity of dress at the 1915 shindig. All of the older ones seem to be BLACK.
Mourning the passing of the old world...

 

[JimDuyer]

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Username: Jim Duyer
Date: 2020-02-22 22:53:23
Reaction Score: 0

It was the style of the times. Just couldn't get enough of that old Victorian ruff.
Then, I GUESS, in the twenties things got CRAZY.
You see more diversity of dress at the 1915 shindig. All of the older ones seem to be BLACK.
Mourning the passing of the old world...

Thanks, makes sense. But the way that they are clumped into groups speaks more of diversion.

 

[Archive]

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Username: Starmonkey
Date: 2020-02-23 00:05:41
Reaction Score: 1

Great White Fleet? They always seemed to be in the neighborhood of disaster.
How would we even know if they or some other part of the program, possible agent provocateur were all accounted for?
What i meant by all that is MORE explosions than we're told of.
Those buildings on the left made out of brick look ok. Those guys on the right all sitting in chairs. Been watching it for awhile.
I wish we could see farther down the street past where people are...

 

[JimDuyer]

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Username: Jim Duyer
Date: 2020-02-23 15:22:19
Reaction Score: 0

Great White Fleet? They always seemed to be in the neighborhood of disaster.
How would we even know if they or some other part of the program, possible agent provocateur were all accounted for?
What i meant by all that is MORE explosions than we're told of.
Those buildings on the left made out of brick look ok. Those guys on the right all sitting in chairs. Been watching it for awhile.
I wish we could see farther down the street past where people are...

Amen

 

[Bunnyman]

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Username: Bunnyman
Date: 2020-02-23 17:12:57
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My (in)sight must be playing tricksels on my sensory systems again. One look shows me this is a composite and therefor a load of........ if you ask me. But that gut feeling is growing evermore with many supposed historical photographs, drawings, paintings and moving pics. Is what we are up against even like you and I in nature?

 

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Username: jd755
Date: 2020-02-23 19:15:26
Reaction Score: 1

As far as my research into the great whiote fleet goes it didn't get to San Francisco unitl May 1908.
As for the colour of the clothing how the hell can anyone discern that from the grey palllete in the photograph.
People who stand and gawp at fires do tend to stand around in groups either watching in silence or talking quietly. Done it myself on a couple of ocasions over the years.
Assuming the smoke is actually there and the digial scan is of piss poor quality so either it is or it isn't and assuming the figires are also there, the squatting men are suggestive of the Chinese way of sitting, the smoke shows the wind is blowing away from the people so they are not in immediate danger from fire or explosion.

None of that proves or is even evidence of the veracity of the photograph but this scan cannot be of a unique copy of this photograph there must be other copies somewHere in abums produced at the time or in libraries, museums where someone could go and have a really close look at it and report back on here.

Found another scan at the LOC San Francisco earthquake and fire of 1906
Sadly its not much better even the TIF is poor quality.

This musuem bought the negatives in 1941 so it seems to be the best place for a hands on looksee Photography

Searching for a better scan I found a site with these words from the photographer. 1906 Earthquake Eyewitness Account of Arnold Genthe
Of the pictures I had made during the fire, there are several, I believe, that will be of lasting interest. There is particularly the one scene that I recorded the morning of the first day of the fire [along Sacramento Street, looking toward the Bay] which shows, in a pictorially effective composition, the results of the earthquake, the beginning of the fire and the attitude of the people. On the right is a house, the front of which had collapsed into the street. The occupants are sitting on chairs calmly watching the approach of the fire. Groups of people are standing in the street, motionless, gazing at the clouds of smoke. When the fire crept up close, they would just move up a block. It is hard to believe that such a scene actually occurred in the way the photograph represents it. Several people upon seeing it have exclaimed, "Oh, is that a still from a Cecil De Mille picture?" To which the answer has been, "No. the director of this scene was the Lord himself." A few months ago an interview about my work–I had told the story of that fire picture–appeared in a New York paper with the headline, "His pictures posed by the Lord, says photographer."[/]

 

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Username: Banta
Date: 2020-03-20 06:20:45
Reaction Score: 0

Searching for a better scan I found a site with these words from the photographer.

I was trying to dig up a digital copy of "As I Remember"* by Arnold Genthe, but was unable to find one freely available. If anyone finds one, it would be appreciated.

*Great title, too, right? "To the Best of My Knowledge, Your Honor" is obviously the unwritten sequel.

 

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Username: ripvanwillie
Date: 2020-04-26 22:39:13
Reaction Score: 1

As someone who has been in several earthquakes, let me say that when the earth shakes like that the first thing you do is GET THE HELL OUTSIDE! It's not safe indoors in an earthquake. It's not a bravery thing, it's self preservation. Especially when it comes to brick buildings. As you can see by the photo. Get as far away from those as you can! And then enjoy the show cause there ain't no way to stop the shakin!