Search William M. McCarthy Photograph Collection

Caption: "San Francisco April 18 1906." A view of the city of San Francisco ablaze after the 1906 earthquake. Considered one of the worst natural disasters in the country's history, the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and resulting fires killed an estimated 3,000 people and destroyed over 500 city blocks, leaving approximately 200,000 residents homeless.

Date: 1906

Caption: "Michigan AV. - Chicago," c. 1923. Michigan Avenue filled with cars, a double decker bus, and a traffic officer.

Date: 1923

Caption: "Forest Ranger Station," c. 1917. Grace McCarthy (in the driver's seat of the automobile) and an unidentified man taking a break from driving by pausing next to a small plank house, identified as a forest ranger station by William McCarthy.

Date: 1917

No Caption: See also 96-07-08-alb08-217 with caption: "Last Rites," shows a grave site with dozens of caskets ready for burial. A priest and two altar boys stand at one side of the caskets, while a large group of US Navy sailors looks on from the other side. While sailing from port in San Diego on the morning of July 21, 1905, the boiler of the USS Bennington exploded, killing sixty-six of her crew. The victims were laid to rest in the cemetery at Fort Rosecrans.

Date: 1905

Caption: "Point Benito [sic]. Fort Barry." c. 1910. A view of the Point Bonita Lighthouse near Fort Barry and the Marin Headlands. The lighthouse, built in 1855, was the third lighthouse built on the West Coast to shepherd ships through the narrow straights of the Golden Gate. The lighthouse, still active today, is maintained by the U.S. Coast Guard, and is part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.

Date: 1910

Caption: "Service Building," at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition.

Date: 1915

Caption: "Flavel Hotel -- on the Columbia River.," c. 1905-1909. Built at the turn of the century, the Flavel Hotel housed passengers waiting to board steamships of the Great Northern Pacific Steamship Company bound for San Francisco and other ports. The Flavel family constructed the hotel as part of an effort to establish the town of Flavel on Tansy Point along the Columbia River. The town failed to attract sufficient residents, however, and was annexed into Warrenton by 1918.

Date: 1905

Caption: "Nisqually Glacier, Mount Rainier - Note the ice on slope slowly breaking up," c, 1935.

Date: 1935

Caption: "Fort Casey Lighthouse, Wash.," c. 1909. View of the lighthouse with fort buildings in the background. Located on Whidbey Island in Puget Sound, the Admiralty Head Lighthouse was built overlooking Admiralty Inlet in 1903. It replaced an earlier structure that had to be moved in 1890 to accommodate the construction of Fort Casey. The second lighthouse, shown here, was built with thick walls in order to withstand earthquakes and the concussion of guns at Fort Casey. Deactivated in 1922, the lighthouse has since been restored by Washington State Parks, and is part of the Fort Casey State Park.

Date: 1909

Caption: "Mexican Custom House and Officer.," c. 1905. William McCarthy (far right) standing in front of a customs house in Mexico, with two other unidentified men. One of the men appears to be of Hispanic ethnicity, and is likely the "Officer" mentioned in the caption.

Date: 1905