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"The postcards in this collection reflect a hidden past of California that exists now only on the page. From college gates at Stanford destroyed by the 1906 earthquake and hotels in Catalina, Santa Barbara, and Oakland ravaged by fire to giant redwoods on the coast felled by storms and much of downtown Los Angeles razed in the name of the progress, California's landscape has changed dramatically in the last 125 years. The buildings demolished in San Diego's Balboa Park after the 1915 exposition closed are shown here as is downtown San Francisco before the earthquake and fire of 1906, amusement parks that decorated waterfronts from Long Beach to Santa Monica, and city halls from Anaheim to San Jose."--
About the author
Erik Beck was born in New York, but his roots run deep in California. Raised in Orange County, Beck can trace his family roots in the state back to 1781. He is the metadata specialist for the San Diego State University (SDSU) Digital Collections and is currently working on digitizing over 100,000 postcards in the John and Jane Adams Postcard Collection, held by the SDSU Special Collections and Archives.
