New York Public Service Commission investigator F.G. Daniell documenting the infrastructural failures behind the October 21, 1913 double boiler explosion at the Richmond Light & Railroad Company plant at Livingston, Staten Island, which killed fireman Daniel Sullivan, engineer Francis Hannan, and another worker, completely cutting electric service and trolley operation.....

Fire destruction of Trinity United Methodist Church on South 2nd Street in Clearfield, Pennsylvania, photographed during the active overnight blaze of December 21, 1968, in a dramatic sequential record of one of the borough’s largest twentieth century urban fires. The archive captures the church while fully engulfed, preserving flames erupting.....

East Ohio Gas explosion photographs recording the October 20, 1944 liquefied natural gas disaster in Cleveland, Ohio, one of the deadliest industrial catastrophes in city history. The unidentified photographer assembled photos of collapsed gas tanks, burned automobiles, leveled brick buildings, ash fields, and rescue activity after the blast and fire.....

Chicago Loop press photographs documenting the March 2, 1947 explosion and fire at 203 West Van Buren Street. The photographs record the aftermath of the blast zone from street level and from above, showing firefighters working through smoke, rubble, twisted trackside debris, shattered buildings, and waterlogged streets beneath the elevated.....

Miami Hurricane photo archive, group of 21 photographs dated 1926, documenting the destruction in Miami and Coral Gables following the September 18, 1926 hurricane. The material captures the physical impact of one of the most destructive storms in early twentieth-century United States history, including damage to residential districts, maritime infrastructure.....

Topeka tornado photo archive depicting destruction across commercial streets and residential neighborhoods after the June 8, 1966 F5 tornado that struck the Kansas capital, killing 17 people and injuring hundreds more. The storm cut a path nearly 22 miles long through the city during a period when postwar suburban expansion.....

[Transportation] [Industrial Accidents] Truck accident photo archive documenting the failure of a commercial freight distribution system in the midst of a major highway wreck, circa 1960s–1970s. Rather than focusing solely on vehicle damage, the photographs record the cascading consequences that follow when transportation infrastructure breaks down: cargo scattered across the.....

[Rescue Operations] Pecos County, Texas, Cave-in rescue photo archive, likely Summer 1948, recording emergency response and extraction processes to aid a man trapped or injured in a cave in. The scenes show a rescue dating before modern technical rescue equipment became standard: men enter the unstable cave-in, others shovel and.....

Boston and Albany Railroad disaster photo archive documenting the catastrophic 1893 bridge collapse at Chester, Massachusetts, when the westbound Chicago Limited Express crashed through an iron bridge spanning the Westfield River. The wreck occurred on August 31, 1893, after the bridge failed beneath the weight of the train, sending locomotives.....

Erie Railroad accident recovery photo archive depicting a freight train derailment at Newburg Yard on August 10, 1959, most likely in the Cleveland, Ohio, Newburg or Newburgh industrial district. Newburg was an old industrial section of southeast Cleveland tied to railroads, steel works, and freight switching, with the former Atlantic.....

Sandusky, Ohio After the 1924 Lorain Sandusky Tornado. Sandusky, Ohio, 1924. Archive of 9 silver gelatin photographs, each approximately 4.5 x 3 inches, most with handwritten captions en verso identifying scenes of tornado destruction around Market Street, Perry Street, the B. & O. railroad yard, the waterworks standpipe, Ohio Motor.....

Clarkston Valley earthquake photo archive documenting structural damage in southwestern Montana after the June 27, 1925 earthquake, one of the strongest recorded earthquakes in Montana before the 1959 Hebgen Lake disaster. The main shock struck near the Clarkston Valley north of Three Forks and northwest of Bozeman, caused severe damage.....

[San Francisco Earthquake] [Early Photography] A collection of 10 stereoviews documenting the aftermath of the April 18, 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire, published by The World Wide View Co., Chicago, as part of “The World Wide Series.” Standard stereocard format, mounted albumen prints with printed captions on the recto.....