Disasters in California Sheet Music
Floods "California Flood Mazurka," (1870s)
with a lithograph of J Street, Sacramento, under water. Details of buildings
allow identification of particular places of business, architecture, and
modes of water transportation.
Blizzards The blizzard of 1872 stopped the Union Pacific in the
plains, commemorated by "Snowed In Galop," with a lithograph of deliveries
on foot of supplies to the train.
Shipwreck A poignant plea of a frightened girl, "I
do not want to
be drowned," created a bestseller. Illustrated by a lithograph
of the
burning steamship "Golden Gate," the song in several verses narrated
the girl's escape
to shore. Flames were hand-brushed in yellow, red, and orange on each of
thousands of copies.
The wreck of the "Brother Jonathan" is pictured in a woodcut on the cover
of "The Sunken Rock" by P. R. Nicholls, published by Salvator Rosa in 1865.