- Echoes of the Foot-Hills, a book lost in 1906 fire, has resurfaced after 100 years
- Randall Schwed found and donated the book to the Mechanics Institute library in San Francisco in December 2025
- The book bears a 1874 stamp confirming its origin from the San Francisco institute
When a massive fire swept through San Francisco in 1906, hundreds of thousands of library books were lost forever. Now, more than 100 years later, a single surviving volume has resurfaced.
Randall Schwed found 'Echoes of the Foot-Hills' listed on an online marketplace for $35. He donated the book to the Mechanics' Institute library in December last year.
“What's interesting about this book is that it's a survivor. I needed to send it home," Schwed told CNN.
How the book returned remains a mystery to Library Manager Myles Cooper. The earthquake, followed by the massive fire, wiped out 200,000 volumes. So how did this one turn up more than 100 years later?
A stamp dated December 10, 1874, confirms it's from the San Francisco institute, Cooper said. Collector Schwed began tracing the owner, Agnes Quigley, whose name is inked on the first page. He discovered a 1898 San Francisco Call and Post ad placed by Agnes Quigley, which read, “From East, wishes situation as chambermaid and carer of children.”
Schwed admits there's no proof the two Quigleys are the same person. His theories state that either Quigley borrowed the book or she discovered the charred copy later and signed it. Cooper agrees that both are possible. He adds another explanation that the book ended up with her due to the widespread looting that took place after the 1906 earthquake.
'Echoes of the Foot-Hills' isn't the only book that survived the disaster. Cooper said another volume, 'Marriages, Rights, Customs and Ceremonies', was saved and it remained in circulation until 2001.
The soot-spotted book is no longer available for checkout. It's now secured in a display case under a surviving 1854 map of San Francisco. An oversized atlas nearby features pendulum drawings that recorded the earthquake's tremors.
“It's really kind of like a library fantasy. It's really magical.” Cooper said.
