portsmouthsquare

Street Typist, 1906

from San Francisco Public Library

• Art Siegel said:

  Pretty sure this is Portsmouth Square in front of the Hall of Justice. there's a story behind this picture that I was reading recently.. I'll dig it up. Speaking of dig it up.. those seem to be the temporary graves in the park that he's set up by.

• Art Siegel said:

  OK, found it. This is Harry Anderson Lafler, writing his account of the earthquake on the Friday after the earthquake. The article was "My Sixty Sleepless Hours: A Story of the San Francisco Earthquake", published in McClure's Magazine for July, 1906. Info from The Argonaut, Summer 2004, "The King of Telegraph Hill."
  The article is illustrated by a slightly cropped version of this image, credited to the Pat Hathaway Collection, and is printed in reverse of this one.

• Art Siegel said:

  The 1906 McClure's article is also illustrated by this photo, also reversed.
  "Those of us who at the risk of our lives had carried our goods to the square found them safe. It is true that this typewriter of mine upon which I write at this moment has a piece of charred wood at the bottom of the cage and the wooden keybars of e f and 5 are charred just a trifle, but otherwise it is all right. Six feet from me is a wooden cross made by two stakes and running from it north and south is a row of notched hard wood sticks each a foot high. Every one bears a number and each number represents the body of a man killed by the earthquake. The morgue is just across the street and these are the bodies of those brought there in the early morning of the first day. By ten o clock the morgue itself was in danger from fire and so the corpses were brought across the street to the square and buried. One of them I reflect is the Chinaman with the blot for a face. As I look up from my seat towards the Hall of Justice I can see the barred windows of the cells which occupied the top floor, but beyond the bars is now but the blue of the sky. They released the prisoners there they tell me I think they had punishment enough in that one hideous moment when the earthquake came the walls toppled and they were helpless in their iron cells And then what fear must have been upon them when they heard the crackling of the flames and saw red through the barred windows. But now Portsmouth Square is not only habitable but inhabited. The trees are still green the shrubs still tremble in the wind and the galleon with golden sails that tops the granite monument of Stevenson still proudly sails with golden pennant flying.
  San Francisco April 21st 2 am "
  books.google.com/books?id=npS6tkZ9WcoC&pg=PA275&l...

• David Gallagher said:

  it seems unlikely that the source of this is a glass negative, what with that crease in the middle.

• San Francisco Public Library said:

  David Gallagher It is a glass plate negative. There are at least 20 glass plate negatives in this collection in which the photographer photographed original photos as glass plates. Think early copyists and photo preservation!