Earthquake/Fire: Refugees

The 1906 earthquake and fire left about 250,000 homeless, roughly half of San Francisco's population. The postcards on this page show earthquake refugee images. Most are poor quality b+w cards printed locally very soon after the quake.

Unknown publisher, postmarked 5/07/1906, looking east toward Market/Laguna from Mint Hill; see Mint Hill 1906. Haphazard tent encampments sprang up immediately after the fire, eventually replaced by more orderly goverment tent camps.
Photo Co. of America, postmarked 7/02/1906; "cooking the evening meal" on tiny stoves in the street.
Oakland, "supply camp Jefferson Square".
Rieder, Jefferson Square looking north from Turk/Octavia; the large house at center is at Eddy/Octavia (SE corner).

Behrendt 209, camps at North Beach.
Hearst, postmarked 8/02/1906; the very poor-quality image shows a very orderly government tent camp.

These cards all show bread lines.

Unknown publisher, dated 5/xx/1906, looks east toward Nob Hill and the Fairmont from Saint Mary's (Van Ness/O'Farrell, NW corner). The message says the writer waited in this line. American News shows the same image, with much better printing. Earthquake/Fire: Eyewitnesses shows many cards written soon after the quake by eyewitnesses.
Rieder-Cardinell 213, postmarked 4/06/1907, looks NW at the same location. The later Behrendt 204 shows the same image in color.
Spaulding 16 shows a bread line in Jefferson Square, looking east toward St. Paulus German Lutheran Church at Gough/Eddy (SE corner); see Weidner 673.
Scheff 75 shows a bread line in Pacific Heights (Jackson/Laguna).

These cards show daily refugee food preparation tasks.

Rieder-Cardinell 2: keeping house among the tombstones.
Rieder 31: preparing coffee.
Zimmerman, postmarked 7/30/1908: dispensing food at Ft. Mason.
Behrendt 213: cooking on the street. Indoor fires were not permitted after the earthquake/fire, so improvised street kitchens sprang up in undamaged neighborhoods.

Amer. Journal Examiner, Jefferson Square; distributed as part of an uncut sheet in Hearst's American Journal Examiner.
Amer. Journal Examiner, another Hearst card; the print quality of these cards is terrible, and this example is unevenly trimmed.
A.H., postmarked Toronto 8/30/1906. The caption is incorrect; it looks east across Union Square, so it does not show the rear of the St. Francis. The printing of the back is misaligned.
Weidner 248 shows Jefferson Square yet again, looking north from Turk/Octavia; the stairs at right are at the NE corner of the park (Gough/Eddy). The park is filled with people and trunks but not yet with tents, so the image must date from just after the earthquake. This is a much higher quality color card, printed in Germany. Color cards became widely available several months after the quake, largely replacing local b+w cards.

Steve's SF postcard pages: