Book finds its way home 120 years after a library burned down | CNN

A charred book from San Francisco's Mechanics' Institute has returned home more than a century after the institution was destroyed in a fire.

Collector Randall Schwed found the soot-stained volume online and donated it to the library.

The book now sits in a display case alongside other survivors of the 1906 earthquake.

AI-generated summary was reviewed by a CNN editor.

Inside a charred book, pages dotted in soot stains tell the story of how San Francisco rose to the epicenter of a gold rush. Barely escaping the 1906 earthquake, this book should’ve burned completely.