Errors

Many postcard captions contain simple spelling or typographical errors:

Souvenir Post Card 4625F: 'Tivola' for 'Tivoli'.
Rieder-Cardinell and Souvenir Post Card 4631F (not shown): 'Fairmount' for 'Fairmont'.
Weidner 116: 'San Francis' for 'St. Francis'.
Weidner 225: 'Memorial Arch' for 'Memorial Church'.

Caption misidenties location:

A.H.: east from Union Square (not showing St. Francis Hotel rear).
Judge: Market/Guerrero (not Market/Valencia).
Newman, O.: Santa Rosa (not San Francisco); corrected on Newman.

Caption misidentifies location:

Newman V324: Washington (not Grant).
Scheff 78: southeast from ca. Mason/Bush toward Union Square (not north from south of Market).
Souvenir Post Card 4630F: south toward Union Square (not Mission St.).
Unknown publisher 31: shows Tin How temple (not a restaurant per caption).

Post-earthquake b+w postcards from Souvenir Post Card Co. of N.Y. are particularly error-prone. Presumably rushed into print as soon as possible after the quake, probably with limited knowledge of conditions in San Francisco, these cards are not only poorly printed (e.g., missing letters) but also intentionally sensationalized, exaggerating earthquake damage.

Souvenir Post Card 4629: bridge not destroyed (see note).
Souvenir Post Card 4630F: caption misidentifies location and buildings.
Souvenir Post Card 4632: Ferry Building tower not destroyed (see note).

More Souvenir Post Card errors:

Souvenir Post Card 4633: St. Francis Hotel not destroyed (see note),
Souvenir Post Card 4634: no hole 100 ft. deep.
Souvenir Post Card 4634F: Flood Building not destroyed.

Charles Weidner revised many of his pre-quake postcards after the quake, as described on Weidner variants. To capitalize on public interest in the disaster, he added earthquake/fire references to captions. Most of his revised captions are accurate (e.g., Weidner 116), though some are in questionable taste and misleading (e.g., Weidner 16, with former caption "Chinese Girls" replaced by "Chinese Aristocrats. Reduced to poverty by earthquake and fire April 18, 1906.").

Steve's SF postcard pages:

Before Dolores Park