Gare Montparnasse, Paris 1895

Éruption volcanique à la Martinique
R: Georges Méliès. P: Star-Film. Fr. 1902

“This picture depicts the eruption of the volcano by which over 30,000 souls were hurled into eternity. The numerous explosions which took place during the eruption are plain to be seen. Thousands upon thousands of tons of molten lava, sand, rocks and steam are thrown high in the air and descend with crushing force upon the unfortunate inhabitants of the doomed city of St. Pierre. This is the worst calamity which occurred since a similar eruption by Mt. Vesuvius when Pompeii was destroyed.”
Lubin Catalog

Ferdinand Zecca on the set of his film La catastrophe de la Martinique, Fr 1902

Galveston Hurricane of 1900 – Panorama of East Galveston
K: Albert E. Smith. P: Edison Manufacturing Co. USA 1900

>>> for viewing this film on texasarchive.org click here

“At the first news of the disaster by cyclone and tidal wave that devastated Galveston on Saturday, Sept. 8th, 1900, we (Thomas Edison Films) equipped a party of photographers and sent them by special train to the scene of the ruins. Arriving at the scene of desolation shortly after the storm had swept over that city (September 24, 1900), our party succeeded, at the risk of life and limb, in taking about a thousand feet of moving pictures. In spite of the fact that Galveston was under martial law and that the photographers were shot down at sight by the excited police guards, a very wide range of subject has been secured. The series, taken as a whole, will give the entire world a definite idea of the terrible disaster, unequaled since the Johnstown flood of 1889.”
Edison Film Catalogue
Library of Congress

San Francisco: Aftermath of Earthquake
P: American Mutoscope & Biograph. USA 1906

>>> San Francisco, 1906,  San Francisco, Chinatown 1912

TRAUM UND EXZESS, S. 41, S. 153 f., S. 210