First Color Photographs of 1906 San Francisco Earthquake Discovered

A researcher at the Smithsonian has uncovered the first, and possibly only, color photographs of the devastating 1906 San Francisco earthquake that nearly destroyed the city by the bay.

A volunteer at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History discovered the extremely rare series of photographs which show San Francisco in amazing color. They are some of the oldest color stereo photographs, and quite possibly the oldest color images of the city in existence.

The images were taken by photography pioneer Frederick Eugene Ives, mostly from the roof of the hotel he was staying at during a visit to the city in October 1906. Ives was one of the few photographers experimenting with color film at the turn of the 20th century, and his photographs of San Francisco were meant to be viewed through a 3-D viewer that never caught on, says the Smithsonian.

In the wake of Japan’s horrific 9.0 magnitude earthquake earlier this week, the world has a renewed familiarity with one of nature’s most destructive forces. The 1906 quake was America’s most devastating, causing massive fires and killing an estimated 3,000 people.

All photos courtesy of the Photographic History Collections at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.