Photos: The Great 1906 San Francisco Quake, Now in Living Color

1906 earthquake
Photographic History Collections / Smithsonian's National Museum of American History

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Ives' system never gained traction - it was expensive, complicated and Ives himself was not a gifted marketer - but the images remain, passed to the National Museum through Ives' son. They lay in storage until a museum volunteer, Anthony Brooks, called attention to them during an inventory of holdings.

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