San Francisco Earthquake and Fire (California : 1906)

President Roosevelt takes a big stick labeled “Japanese question” and hits “San Francisco” with it. Caption: “Another earthquake.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

Fortunately or unfortunately, the tragedy of the San Francisco earthquake provided cartoonists opportunities to employ the event as a reference-point for drawings that addressed other matters. But it is what cartoonists do — deal in the relatable; and after more than a century, the earthquake provides talking-points in politics and other fields.

Headline declares, “Half of San Francisco is now in ashes!” following an earthquake and fire.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1906-04-19

President Roosevelt writes to his son Kermit to say that Ted’s eye is improving and Ted is back at Harvard. Roosevelt discusses Archie and Quentin playing, getting along with Edith, and the egg-rolling on Easter Monday. Roosevelt says he is busy with the disaster in San Francisco and is also focused on the Panama Canal issue and getting the rate bill passed.

Collection

Harvard College Library

Creation Date

1906-04-22

An allegorical female figure labeled “San Francisco” is being tortured “on the rack” by a cast of medieval-looking executioners labeled “Cement Dealer, Lumber Dealer, Iron Workers’ Union, Steel Trust, Bricklayers Union, Building Materials, [and the central figure] Greed” in the aftermath of the 1906 earthquake and fire that destroyed much of San Francisco. Caption: “Generosity” is easy when you can get your money back with interest.

comments and context

Comments and Context

There are many possible subtexts to Carl Hassmann’s brutal and explicit allegory of systemic political corruption in San Francisco. Or it might a “simple” indictment of the current administration’s mismanagement there, spectacular as it was.

A female figure holds out a crown labeled “The New Frisco,” fashioned after a city skyline. A bear sits on the ground next to her and, in the background, are 16th or 17th century sailing ships. The context of this cover cartoon is the destruction of San Francisco three weeks previous, and the city’s hopes for renewal.

comments and context

Comments and Context

This Hassmann cover, an elegant and sunny poster-like statement, was Puck‘s first response to the horrendous San Francisco earthquake of April 18, 1906, approximately three weeks earlier. Exigencies of planning, publishing, and distributing a weekly magazine with a cover date that was usually a week later than the printing sometimes led Puck to miss events related to daily headlines, or address them after the major components of the story.

President Roosevelt thanks Secretary of War Taft for the efforts of the army to provide relief to San Francisco following the earthquake that devastated the area. Roosevelt recalls other instances in which the army has provided similar relief, and affirms that the army has met these challenges “in noble fashion and with an efficiency which justified to the full its equipment in men and means.” Item includes shorthand and typewritten text.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-04-28

President Roosevelt thanks Emperor Meiji of Japan for the kind letter he received referencing the contributions of the American Red Cross Society for the relief of famine in northeastern Japan. Roosevelt now thanks Meiji in turn for the generosity and sympathy the Japanese people have shown the people of San Francisco in the wake of the earthquake there.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-08-11

President Roosevelt confirms receipt of Acting Secretary of the Treasury Taylor’s report on the assistance given by the Revenue Cutter Service to the people of San Francisco and has ordered it to be made public. He thanks Taylor and all the officers and enlisted men of the service for providing “prompt, gallant and efficient work.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-05-31

President Roosevelt is sorry to report that it is impossible for the Federal Government to act as William D. Sohier believes it should regarding disaster relief in San Francisco. The Army will be finished with its work in San Francisco in nine days, and the government will have no further power there. Neither will the National Red Cross be able to advantageously act, “save through the local committees.” Roosevelt has forwarded Sohier’s letter to Secretary of War William H. Taft.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-06-21

President Roosevelt introduces Cleveland H. Dodge to Henry J. McCoy, secretary of the San Francisco Young Men’s Christian Association. Roosevelt has given McCoy this letter of introduction because he takes an interest in the association’s work, and reminds Dodge that their building was burnt down in the earthquake and subsequent fire that struck San Francisco.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-06-07

President Roosevelt was relieved to hear from Fairfax Henry Wheelan and is glad that he was not as affected by the San Francisco earthquake and fire as he had feared. Wheelan’s account of the people of San Francisco fills Roosevelt with pride. Regarding Lewis’s wish for a military appointment, Roosevelt tells Wheelan to have him submit an application but warns that the chances of Roosevelt being able to appoint him are small due to the number and claims of other applicants.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-05-21

President Roosevelt expresses his regret that the San Francisco Young Men’s Christian Association building was destroyed in the recent disasters at San Francisco. Roosevelt believes in the importance of the work the organization does and assures Henry J. McCoy that he believes the country will band together to help support reconstruction of the building. He praises the courage with which the inhabitants of San Francisco have faced the disasters affecting them.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-05-05

President Roosevelt thanks Danforth Geer and the members of the Hoosac Club for their donation of $405 to go towards disaster relief in San Francisco, California. Roosevelt has given the check to Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Charles Hallam Keep as he is Treasurer of the Red Cross.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-05-04

President Roosevelt updates his son Kermit Roosevelt on some of the goings-on of the family, and reports that Kermit’s brother Ted’s eye surgery went well. The egg-rolling at the White House on Easter Monday was great fun for the children, and the white house grounds are looking nice in spring. Roosevelt relates a humorous story involving Kermit’s younger brother Quentin Roosevelt, who “is a funny small person if ever there was one.” Roosevelt is trying to send aid to California, still reeling after a recent earthquake, and has been continuing his fight for a rate bill and the Panama Canal issue.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-04-22

President Roosevelt feels that Stanford University has been hard hit by the recent San Francisco earthquake and fire, and tells University President David Starr Jordan that he felt the damage to Stanford “with peculiar keenness because the sight of it impressed me so vividly.” Roosevelt hopes the university will still have some of its former beauty.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-04-27

President Roosevelt sends his greetings to, and best wishes for the success of, the Earthquake Sufferers’ Relief Fund Benefit.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-04-26

President Roosevelt has received the telegram sent by San Francisco Mayor Eugene E. Schmitz and others in the wake of the San Francisco earthquake and fire, and notifies him of a proclamation that he has just issued regarding disaster relief for the city which urges further charitable contributions be given not to the Red Cross, but rather to local committees. Roosevelt also informs Schmitz of other efforts that are currently in progress to send assistance to the city.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-04-25

President Roosevelt thanks Anna M. Porter and the congregation of the Hillside Congregational Church for their contributions to disaster relief efforts in San Francisco in the wake of the earthquake there.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-04-25

President Roosevelt defends the action he took in sending money to the Red Cross, in that the prime concern was to meet the immediate emergency in San Francisco, which it was able to do. Now that local relief organizations have been created, further funds will be sent to them. Previous scandals and allegations of mismanagement of funds by the Red Cross were linked with Clara Barton, who resigned from he organization in 1904, and the organization is now efficiently organized.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-04-25

President Roosevelt has received a number of messages urging disaster relief funds for San Francisco to be given to local committees rather than the National Red Cross. He believes that the course he took at the time was the only possible one, but that now if the regular authorities believe they can do the necessary relief work they should be allowed to do so.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-04-25