Faded ink stamps of the Mechanics\u2019 Institute Library dot the book\u2019s pages, which are spotted with age and darkened by smoke.<\/p>\n
The book, an 1875 first-edition collection of poetry, \u201cEchoes of the Foot-Hills,\u201d was thought to be lost forever but was returned in April to the private, nonprofit library at the edge of San Francisco\u2019s Financial District.<\/p>\n
On April 18, 1906, a catastrophic earthquake and ensuing fires<\/a> destroyed nearly 500 city blocks and killed an estimated 3,000 people.<\/p>\n The San Francisco Public Library lost 138,000 volumes to the fires. About 15,000 books were checked out, and of those 1,500<\/a> were returned.<\/p>\n The original brick Mechanics\u2019 Institute building collapsed, destroying about 200,000 volumes in its main collection.<\/p>\n Myles Cooper, the library\u2019s manager and archivist, said the library had a few books that survived from 1906, some of which were most likely saved because they were checked out at the time.<\/p>\n Of \u201cEchoes of the Foot-Hills,\u201d Mr. Cooper said in an interview on Sunday: \u201cIt could have been in the rubble, and somebody took it. Or it could have been at somebody\u2019s home that caught fire, and then was in the rubble.\u201d<\/p>\n The name of a San Franciscan, Agnes Quigley, appears inside the book.<\/p>\n The library does not have records of the books that were checked out at the time of the earthquake and Ms. Quigley\u2019s connection to the book is unknown, Mr. Cooper said.<\/p>\n The Mechanics\u2019 Institute Library<\/a> was founded in 1854 \u2014 more than two decades before the San Francisco Public Library opened \u2014 to serve a large population of out-of-work miners who needed vocational education.<\/p>\n Today the library has more than 110,000 volumes housed in a 1910 Beaux-Arts building<\/a>, Mr. Cooper said. It has about 2,200 household memberships.<\/p>\n Mr. Cooper noted that \u201cEchoes of the Foot-Hills\u201d was certainly still part of the library\u2019s collection because it did not have a stamp to indicate that it had been discarded or withdrawn.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s obviously sustained damage from fire, but not so much that you would want to completely toss it out,\u201d he said. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t smell of smoke. It\u2019s not charred in a way that is chalky and gets on your hands.\u201d<\/p>\n The book is available for patrons to read only in the library.<\/p>\n \u201cThey don\u2019t have to wear gloves or anything, just make sure their hands are clean,\u201d Mr. Cooper said. \u201cIt\u2019s really beautiful, it\u2019s been read, it\u2019s been loved, and there\u2019s no indication of any repairs to the book.\u201d<\/p>\n Randall Tarpey-Schwed, a book collector and library member, found the book on a website that deals in, among other things, rare books and collectibles. How it reached that previous owner is unknown.<\/p>\n Mr. Tarpey-Schwed said he was curious whether any books had survived the 1906 earthquake and fires, by virtue of having been checked out.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was no place to return the book, at least for a while, or to reapply Gertrude Stein\u2019s famous quote, there was no \u2018there there\u2019 to return the book to,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe book is not worth much monetarily,\u201d Mr. Tarpey-Schwed said. \u201cIt is, after all, a soot-stained book with a lot of old library stamps. But as a survivor, it is priceless, and I knew immediately I wanted to return it to the library.\u201d<\/p>\n