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1906 SF quake captured in color

March 11, 2011 / 2:19 AM EST / CBS News

Smithsonian National Museum of American History

Rare color images of San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake - among the first color images ever taken of the city - were released by the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.

The magnitude 7.8 quake struck the city at 5:12 a.m. April 18, 1906 and shook the earth for 40 seconds. The tremor and resulting fire left 3,000 people dead and 225,000 homeless.

Scenes of the devastation wreaked upon San Francisco in a photo shot from the roof of the Hotel Majestic, on Sutter Street.

Billboards left intact amid the rubble advertising women's shoes for 25 cents and another for chewing tobacco.

These images were originally intended to be viewed through a 3-D viewing device.

Here's how images of the San Francisco earthquake have looked to later generations until now. This is a famous photo of Sacramento Street, near Powell Street, by Arnold Genthe.

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