The Stereoscope
The Galveston Unscripted Collection:
Images of Galveston after the 1900 Storm
WARNING: Images depicting dead victims of the 1900 Storm
These stereo-view images were taken on September 10th, 1900, just 2 days after the 1900 Storm swept through Galveston killing over 6,000 people on the island.
Stereo Image 1: Taken on Tremont Street (23rd) looking North at the intersection of Mechanic Street. The photographer captures a wagon carrying bodies through the downtown area, possibly to a makeshift morgue for identification or a barge to be buried at sea. The wagon is surrounded by boys and men, catching a glimpse of the victims as the wagon passes. One woman in a dress can be seen to the right of the wagon. When viewed through the Stereoscope, the image becomes more than old ink on antique paper, but a living scene of the horrifying nightmare that was the weeks after the storm.
Stereo Image 2: This image was taken at the port of a barge being loaded with dead victims of the 1900 Storm. The surviving citizens of Galveston knew they could not bury the thousands of bodies on the island before the decay process began. Surviving Galveston citizens feared that disease would quickly spread due to the amount of dead on the island. Bodies that were found among the rubble were taken by wagons or carried to makeshift morgues downtown or directly to barges at the port to be buried at sea. Unfortunately, sea burial attempts were in vain due to hundreds of bodies washing ashore days after being buried at sea just a few miles off of the island. After the sea burials were abandoned, mass funeral pyres were erected all over the island. Bodies were uncovered from the rubble for many weeks after the storm.
