A substantial album of vintage albumen photographs showing the devastation to the city of Charleston, South Carolina, following the earthquake of August 31, 1886. It belonged to the English-born Francis W. Dawson (1841-1889) who came to America in 1862 to fight for the Confederacy and was produced between 1886 and the time of Dawson’s sensational murder in 1889 (the au pair who later shot him appears in the first photograph).
Estimated to have reached a magnitude of 7.3, the earthquake left 60 people dead and caused substantial property damage to nearly every structure in the city. Felt as far away as Chicago and Cuba, the Charleston earthquake remains one of the strongest recorded earthquakes on the east coast of the United States.
The photographs collected in this album were taken by various Charleston photographers in the aftermath of the earthquake and document extensive property damage, soil liquefaction, sink holes and fissures, ruptured rail lines and overturned train cars, and the tent camps erected to house the newly homeless. “At least forty thousand people were ‘tenting’ in Charleston by September 3” (Williams & Hoffius, p. 53). A particular focus is placed on the damage sustained by the many Charleston churches and grand private residences. The photographers include George La Grange Cook (1849-1919), son of the prominent Civil War photographer George S. Cook (1819-1902). Cook’s earthquake photographers were popular souvenir items, and he offered some 200 images in his series “Cook’s Earthquake Views of Charleston and Vicinity.” Other photographers include the Irish-born James A. Palmer (1825-1896), who specialized in views of southern blacks, and the English-born William E. Wilson (d. 1905), who specialized in documentary photography of Mobile and Savannah. Photographs of the destruction – along with vials of “earthquake sand” — were popular souvenirs among the waves of “disaster tourists” who began arriving shortly after the earthquake to view the ruined city.
At the time of the earthquake, Dawson was co-owner and editor of the Charleston News and Courier (a photograph of the paper’s damaged office is included in the album) and was the city’s most prominent private citizen. Despite his earlier support for the Confederacy, Dawson used his influential position to urge racial tolerance and support for Reconstruction. Dawson was appointed a member of the Executive Relief Committee formed in the aftermath of the earthquake and was instrumental in spearheading and supporting the rebuilding of the city. His newspaper urged optimism and resilience in the face of mounting racial tension and the ever-present fear of another cataclysmic natural event. “Almost single-handedly, [Dawson] was attempting to prod his fellow citizens to buck up and rebuild their city” (ibid, p. 93)
This album may have been presented to him as a tribute for his efforts. The first photograph shows Dawson’s home at 99 Bull Street, with Dawson and family sitting on the front porch. To the left of the family is Hélène Burdayron, the Swiss au pair who was at the center of a dispute that lead to Dawson’s murder (see Roxana Robinson, “The Strange Career of Frank Dawson,” The New York Times, 20 March 2012).
Williams & Hoffius, Upheaval in Charleston (2011); Roxana Robinson, “The Strange Career of Frank Dawson,” The New York Times, 20 March 2012.
