The Winterthur Library

 The Joseph Downs Collection of Manuscripts and Printed Ephemera

Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum

5105 Kennett Pike, Winterthur, Delaware  19735

Telephone: 302-888-4600 or 800-448-3883

 

 

OVERVIEW OF THE COLLECTION

 

Creator:         [unknown]                              

Title:               Charleston Earthquake slides

Dates:             1865, 1886

Call No.:         Col. 760

Acc. No.:        05x141

Quantity:        13 slides

Location:        40 A 3

 

 

 

BIOGRAPHICAL STATEMENT

 

Charleston, South Carolina, suffered from a massive earthquake on August 31, 1886, which damaged a large percentage of the buildings in the city.

 

 

SCOPE AND CONTENT

 

Twelve glass lantern slides depicting damage in Charleston, South Carolina, after the great earthquake of August 31, 1886.  Also one slide of Charleston taken at the end of the Civil War.  The slides were compared with pictures printed in Views of Prominent Places in Charleston, South Carolina, U. S. A., Illustrating the Effects of the Earthquake Shock, August 31st., 1886, ..., by Alexander Mack Cochran.

 

 

ORGANIZATION

 

The lantern slides are in accession number order.      

 

 

PROVENANCE

           

This group of slides was discovered in the Downs Collection stacks without any note to indicate their origin.

 

 

RESTRICTIONS ON ACCESS

 

Slides were cleaned and retaped in winter 2006.  The old labels were removed from the slides themselves and placed in separate folders.  The slides are in Mylar sleeves.  They may not be removed from the sleeves without permission from a staff member.  Gloves must be worn to handle slides not in sleeves. 

 

 

ACCESS POINTS

 

Topics:

            Earthquakes - South Carolina - Charleston - 1886.

Charleston (S.C.) – Buildings, structures, etc. – Pictorial works.

            Charleston (S.C.) – History – 19th century.

            Charleston (S.C.) – History – Civil War, 1861-1865.

            Charleston (S.C.) – Pictorial works.

            Lantern slides.

           

 

 

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE COLLECTION

 

Location: 40 A 3

 

 

.1         Hibernian Hall

 

.2         City Hall Park, with tents set up

 

.3         City Hospital

 

.4         “worst wreck” – identified in Views of Prominent Places … as East Bay, corner of Cumberland Street – “a complete wreck, damaged $15,000”

 

.5         ruins on Tradd St.

 

.6         overturned locomotive

 

.7         ruins of the Guard House

(Views of Prominent Places … identifies this as the police station, corner of Broad and Meeting Streets)

 

.8         “craterlet” in street

 

.9         St. Michael’s Church

 

.10       Shifted monument, in a cemetery

 

.11       residence of Bishop Keane

 

.12       ruin at Lincolnville?  [raised house knocked off its piers]

(The label might not go with this picture, but it doesn’t fit any of the others, either.)

 

.13       Exchange Building – this view is almost identical to a photo taken in 1865 by one of Matthew Brady’s photographers – see Charleston Come Hell or High Water, p. v.  This is not an earthquake photo.

 

[no acc. no.]    Extra piece of glass with label “City Hospital,” goes with .3 above

 

[no acc. no.]    Extra piece of glass