San Francisco earthquake photo archive depicting the destruction caused by the April 18, 1906 earthquake and the fires that burned through the city afterward. The disaster killed thousands, left much of San Francisco in ruins, and displaced a massive urban population into parks, camps, and temporary shelters. Commercial postcards circulated.....
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.....
Hartford, Connecticut flood photographs documenting the March 1936 inundation of the city’s downtown commercial center during the Great New England Flood, a regional disaster that drove the Connecticut River to record levels at Hartford and caused severe damage across the Connecticut Valley. Identified views of the Connecticut General Life Insurance.....
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.....
At 6:42 a.m. on June 29, 1925, Santa Barbara was struck by a severe earthquake that killed thirteen people, caused roughly $8 million in damage, and tore through the city’s commercial center before most stores and offices had opened for the day. This large archive of photos record the ruined.....
Texas City disaster press photographs recording emergency treatment, industrial fire, body recovery, and civic mourning in Texas City, Texas, in the immediate aftermath of the April 16, 1947 port explosions. The SS Grandcamp, loaded with 2,300 tons of ammonium nitrate fertilizer manufactured from surplus WWII munitions material and bound for.....
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.....
Chelsea fire real photo postcard archive documenting the destruction of civic, religious, medical, and financial institutions in Chelsea, outside of Boston, Massachusetts, after the November 1908 fire, one of the most destructive urban fires in early twentieth century New England. This collection displays not only the ruined architecture but on.....
[Natural Disasters][Montana History] Helena, Montana 1935 earthquake photo archive, documenting residential destruction, commercial collapse, and emergency relief operations after the Fall 1935 seismic event, with direct evidence of urban disaster in the state capital during one of the most damaging earthquake episodes in Rocky Mountain history. The photographs record damaged.....
The aftermath of destruction left by the March 10, 1933 Long Beach earthquake photo archive of 28 images. This earthquake had a magnitude 6.4 shock on the Newport-Inglewood Fault that struck at 5:54 p.m. and killed roughly 120 people. The earthquake struck during the depths of the Great Depression, when.....
Archive of 53 original silver gelatin photographs, c. 1921–1923, documents United States Navy operations and records direct visual evidence of the Honda Point Disaster, the largest peacetime loss of U.S. Navy ships. The group includes multiple close-range images of grounded and wrecked destroyers along the Santa Barbara County coastline, establishing.....
Wichita Falls tornado photographs documenting residential destruction after the April 10, 1979 storm, in one of the worst weather disasters in Texas history. An unidentified photographer recorded the city after the storm passed, focusing on leveled subdivisions, broken walls, stripped trees, scattered lumber, and improvised messages left amid the wreckage.....
An American submarine-hunting aircraft wreck off the runway at the U.S. naval base in Rota, Spain, documented in the hours after a crash landing during the height of the Cold War. The United States built this base under a 1953 deal with Spanish dictator Francisco Franco, who traded the use.....
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.....
Missouri tornado aftermath photographs recording the destruction of named rural homes, barns, and outbuildings in the wake of the May 9, 1927 storm, a direct local record of how one of the most destructive tornado days of the late 1920s was experienced at the level of individual families and farm.....
[Natural Disasters][Engineering] Niagara Falls bridge collapse photo archive documenting the failure of the Honeymoon Bridge during the catastrophic ice jam of January 1938, one of the most dramatic engineering failures in the history of the Niagara frontier. Built in 1898 as the Upper Steel Arch Bridge and renamed the Honeymoon.....
Portland flood photographs recording inundated streets, industrial buildings, freight trackage, and emergency response in the Vanport Flood of 1948, marking the reshaping of Oregon's then second largest city. The group centers Portland rather than Vanport itself, showing the working city under water at a moment when warehouses, bridges, rail sidings.....
The March 1936 flood in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, photo archive along the Ohio and Beaver rivers. Handwritten captions identify Bridgewater, Kent Street in New Brighton, the Monaca Bridge, “between Rochester and Junction,” cut banks, heavy ice, and a woman identified as Mrs. French. The dated views place the group within.....
Springfield Massachusetts flood photographs documenting the March 1936 Connecticut River disaster in western Massachusetts, with direct evidence of how floodwater moved through streets, bridges, utility plants, churches, and commercial blocks in one of the worst flood events in regional history. Images record the city at the point where river flooding.....
St. Louis tornado photo archive depicting urban destruction after the September 29, 1927 tornado, with collapsed houses, torn-open brick buildings, wrecked automobiles, and streets filled with debris. The storm cut across St. Louis and into Illinois, killing nearly eighty people and damaging hundreds of city blocks. The scenes emphasize what.....
Van Wert County, Ohio tornado photo archive, March 9, 1918, recording the destruction of named rural properties after a deadly storm centered on northwestern Ohio near the Indiana state line. Contemporary reports described the storm as striking Van Wert County, killing members of the Wells family, damaging communication lines, and.....
Seattle freight yard fire photo archive documenting the destruction and emergency aftermath of a rail served maritime industrial site in 1948. The photographs center a burned yard associated with the American Hawaiian Steamship Company, a major intercoastal carrier that linked Pacific ports with Atlantic and Gulf Coast trade and maintained.....
Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident, Report to the President: Report at a Glance, 1986, documents the federal investigation system created after the destruction of Space Shuttle Challenger and supports research into NASA safety culture, aerospace engineering failure, federal oversight, and public accountability after technological disaster. The report.....
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.....
Waco tornado photograph archive, 1953, recording street level destruction after the May 11 storm that struck the center of Waco, Texas, killing 114 people and injuring 597. The tornado was later rated F5 and remains among the deadliest tornadoes in Texas history, tied in fatalities with the 1902 Goliad tornado.....
