Early one spring morning, disaster struck San Francisco, and a young man grabbed his camera and started documenting the destruction and death surrounding him. Fearlessly going to the center of the devastation, the man captured scenes of fires, collapsing buildings, and people fleeing for their lives scenes that no one else had a chance to record. His photographs were preserved in a family photo album, unseen by the public for over a hundred years.

"When San Francisco Burned" presents for the first time the photographs that young man, Louis P. Selby, took of the Great San Francisco...