"The Eruption of Vesuvius as seen from Naples, October 1822" from V. Day & Son. In G. Julius Poullet Scrope, Masson, 1864. Historical Draw from George Julius Poulett Scrope (1797-1876). Wikipedia.
What does the cataclysmic eruption of Mt. Vesuvius have to do with San Francisco history? Not much, except for the fact that the very same volcano which brought the destruction of Herculaneum and Pompeii erupted again, 1,827 years later, just days before the devastating 1906 San Francisco earthquake.
As a result, the San Francisco History Center holds two competing volumes which connect the two natural disasters: The History of the San Francisco Disaster and Mount Vesuvius Horror by Charles Eugene Banks and Opie Read, and The Complete Story of the San Francisco Earthquake; the Eruption of Mt. Vesuvius and other volcanic outbursts and earthquakes by Marshall Everett.
Both are illustrated and thrill the reader with chapter titles such as "Mad Panic Seizes the Citizens" and "Human Vampires Shot Down" - A bit more dramatic than, say, Pliny the Younger's description of the disaster that befell Herculaneum and Pompeii.
However, while Pliny's may be the only surviving eyewitness account of Vesuvius' volcanic blast in 79 AD, the San Francisco History Center has a plethora of materials for you to research on the 1906 earthquake: books, vertical files, scrapbooks, and small manuscript collections, as well as our online gallery, Photos of the Great Fire and Earthquake of 1906.
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This is the kind of thing that really makes me miss SF...
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