The documents selected for this exhibit are primary sources that historians and other researchers study when they write about historical events. They are a selection from the files created or received by Federal agencies in or near San Francisco at the time of the disaster. They contain eyewitness testimony of the damage of the earthquake, the ensuing fires, and the desolation that was left in their wake.

SPARK follows photographers from the Sixth Street Photography Workshop as they take pictures of their lives and ideas in some of San Francisco's most depressed neighborhoods. This Educator Guide is about the history of photography.

The large development projects of the 1930s, designed to serve a growing population, helped shape California in many ways. Most are still integral today. Photographs show the progress of two massive Northern California projects: the Golden Gate Bridge, which links San Francisco and Marin County, and the Bay Bridge, which connects San Francisco with Oakland and the East Bay. The Golden Gate Bridge is one of the most recognized bridges in the world. It is unique not only because of its vermilion orange color: this steel suspension bridge, with a 4,200-foot-long central span and two towers that are 746 feet tall, is the largest ever built. The photographs in this group, taken between 1933 and 1934, show the various phases of construction from different perspectives, looking down, up, and across the span as it was being built. Some photos also show the workers who helped build this famous structure. The Golden Gate Bridge was built under the direction of Joseph Baermann Strauss, an Ohio-born engineer who built more than 400 bridges. The portrait of Strauss also shows the partially built bridge in the background. The Golden Gate Bridge opened to vehicles and pedestrians in 1937. The Bay Bridge construction began in 1933, and the span opened to vehicles in 1936. At 8.25 miles, it is the world?s longest steel bridge. The bridge consists of twin suspension bridges. Many of the photos show workers on catwalks with cables and pulleys, building the bridge. Growing cities also created greater demands for resources, including electrical power. The building of powerhouses like the Pitt River Power House and the Las Plumas Power House near Oroville, shown here, helped to meet this need. Southern California also saw large construction projects. One image in this group shows the San Vicente Dam under construction.A few of these images were taken by Jervie Henry Eastman, who established Eastman's Studio in 1921. His photographs were often turned into picture postcards, such as the one of the oil rigs along Ocean Boulevard in Huntington Beach, in 1935.

This site presents 8,000 photos, paintings, letters, diary excerpts, pamphlets, and speeches that portray the experiences of Chinese immigrants in California during that time period. Contributions of Chinese immigrants to commerce and business, architecture and art, agriculture and other industries are described. Chinatown in San Francisco receives special treatment as the oldest and largest community of Chinese in the U.S.

These images are compressed versions of high definition television (HDTV) images showing how Landsat data, which spans a very broad swatch of the electromagnetic spectrum, can be turned into images. The TIFF versions of these images are full resolution HDTV frames (1920 x 1080). All images have the HDTV standard aspect ratio (16:9). The Thematic Mapper (TM) on Landsat 4 and 5 observes reflected sunlight from the Earth all the way from blue in the visible part of the electromagnetic spectrum to shortwave infrared well beyond the ability of the human eye to perceive. The TM instrument also can observe infrared radiation actively emitted by the Earth from thermal infrared radiation. Landsat 7 carries an improved version of the TM instrument, called ETM+. In addition to 7 channels of spectral data collected by the older TM instruments, ETM+ can observe in a special panchromatic band spanning the entire visible spectrum at twice the resolution of the TM bands (15 meter resolution instead of 30 meters). The ETM+ also has a major improvement in the resolution of the thermal band (60 meter resolution instead of 160 meters). A standard way to create images from raw Landsat TM and ETM+ data is to display a single band as a primary color, then combine different bands to create a full color image. Images shown here demonstrate combining three bands to make a color image using TM bands 5, 4, & 2, which covers a very broad range of the TM's spectral coverage. It is also shown in combination with a digital elevation model. Terrain data is shown with vertical features exaggerated by a factor of three to emphasize details.

This audio excerpt from National Public Radio's All Things Considered examines policies designed to achieve racial diversity in San Francisco's schools and their impact on Chinese Americans.

The people who came to California in search of gold were faced with the threat of disaster in every step of their journey. Many came by ship, even though shipwrecks were commonplace ? one set of lithographs depicts four shipwrecks that occurred within 60 days. Earthquakes were another fact of life in California. Sensational newspaper illustrations like "Earth Quakey Times," and photographs showing buildings in shambles, helped build the state's reputation as an "earthquake capital." Earthquakes were not the only disasters. Several images show the city of Sacramento flooded and on fire, others show fires that destroyed parts of San Francisco and other cities. As the photograph of the firefighters at the Eureka firehouse show, some services were in place to deal with this constant threat. The popular culture of the time reflected these recurring disasters. Artists drew pictures based on survivors? accounts of train crashes and shipwrecks. Composers wrote music such as the "Flood Mazurka," about a flood in Sacramento, and songs such as "I Do Not Want to Be Drowned," dedicated to survivors of the shipwreck of the Golden Gate. Despite the many potential dangers and risks of traveling to and living in California, new people kept flowing into the state. In many ways, this situation still holds true today.

The history of earthquakes in the San Francisco Bay area is plotted on a digital map and analyzed in this video segment adapted from NOVA.

Using data from different spacecraft and some powerful computer technology, visualizers at the Goddard Space Flight Center present you with a collection of American cities in a way you have never seen them before. Starting with our camera high above the Earth, we rush in towards the surface at what would be an impossible speed for any known vehicle. Passing though layers of atmosphere, the colors of our destinations shimmer with their own unique characteristics, and suddenly we find ourselves floating in virtual space just above the ground.

Cities up and down the state of California grew rapidly during the Gold Rush era. Some of these cities were veritable boomtowns: San Francisco, a small village in 1847, was a bustling city by 1849, just two years later. San Francisco's population boom even had an impact on its geography. One image from 1847 shows Montgomery Street on the waterfront; but a photograph taken in 1862 shows that the waterfront had been filled to increase the city's real estate, pushing Montgomery Street inland. Southern California also had its share of rapidly growing cities. Between 1850 and 1870, a span of just 20 years, the population of Los Angeles County grew from 3,530 and 15,309. Lithographs show a bird's eye view of the city and outlying farmland, a vastly different city than the Los Angeles of today. Two photographs of substantial buildings taken in Anaheim in the 1880s ? one of a hotel ? show clear evidence of growth.The cities continued to grow because more and more people migrated to California, despite the long and difficult journey. Many transportation businesses encouraged travel to California, and posters advertising travel fares reflected the different ways that people could travel to and within the Golden State: by ship, by train, or in a horse-drawn stagecoach. Some ads even played to travelers' fears, suggesting that crossing by land was safer than by sea.

Artistic Director Ed Decker celebrates the uniqueness of New Conservatory Theatre Center as a populist community theatre whose productions speak to and for diverse audiences, especially the gay community of San Francisco. This Educator Guide explores the history and programs of the New Conservatory Theatre Center and its role in community development in San Francisco.

"Not In Our Town Northern California: When Hate Happens Here" looks at five communities that are dealing with hate violence. This Educator Guide addresses events in San Francisco. An art exhibit was organized at the main branch of the San Francisco Public Library in response to the vandalism of over 600 gay-oriented texts. This Guide includes discussion ideas and activities related to hate crimes.

American Photorealist painter Robert Bechtle prepares for a retrospective exhibit of his work at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. This Educator Guide address the history and evolution of photorealism in painting.

A pan around San Francisco, starting at Pier 45 on Fisherman's Wharf and ending at Alcatraz Island, from an IKONOS image taken March 15, 2000

This site tells why the April 18, 1906, earthquake along the San Andreas Fault was one of the most significant earthquakes of all time. See photos, eyewitness accounts, the 1906 seismogram, and casualty and damage statistics. Learn about the flurry of scientific investigation unleashed by the quake and the advances that followed.

Transitions between relatively cloud free scenes of the San Francisco region, using true color land and clouds with false color-chlorophyll water images, all from SeaWiFS

A flyby of San Francisco, from Landsat imagery

A flyby of San Francisco from Landsat data

A Flyby of San Francisco, from Landsat imagery