"The whole street was undulating. It was as if the waves of the ocean were coming toward me and billowing as they came." -- Police Sergeant Jess Cook Photo: Oakland Museum of California.

The Oakland Museum of California remembers the seismic catastrophe that rocked the Bay Area 100 years ago with Aftershock! Voices from the 1906 Earthquake and Fire, April 1–August 13, 2006. The 4,000-square-foot exhibition, with more than 250 artifacts and photographs, is the largest in California dedicated to the centennial of the earthshaking events of April 18, 1906.

Aftershock! focuses on the earthquake’s impact on the people living in the Bay Area a century ago. The 7.8-magnitude quake cut a swath of destruction from Santa Rosa to San Jose, displacing 200,000 people in San Francisco alone. The quake and three-day fire wiped out three-fifths of the city’s housing, as well as its municipal buildings and landmarks. Overnight, the financial capital of the West was in ruins. Areas founded on swamps and landfill were the hardest hit. An estimated 3,000 people perished in the fire and quake, some in cheap lodgings that collapsed as they slept.

The exhibition recounts how individuals withstood and rebounded from the calamitous 1906 events. It goes beyond the familiar images and statistics to tell the stories of a cross section of Bay Area citizens, including Dennis Sullivan, the fire chief whose death in the quake contributed to the unfocused and ineffective fire-fighting efforts; Flora Allen, a survivor and longtime participant in the annual commemoration at Lotta’s Fountain, who died recently at age 100-plus; the Quan family, who sponsored “paper sons”—male immigrants without legal documentation—after the quake destroyed citizenship records; and the renowned Spanish dancer La Estrellita, who performed in the Panama Pacific International Exhibition, a ten-month celebration of the rebirth of San Francisco; among many others

The 1906 earthquake and fire left over 225,000 San Franciscans homeless. Photo:Oakland Museum of California.

Visitors to Aftershock! can experience a simulated earthquake via a “shake-table” under the floor of a re-created Victorian room that rolls and pitches. A documentary of digitally enhanced photographs and archival film footage helps visualize the impact of the temblor, which caused damage estimated at 500 million in 1906 dollars.

The exhibition includes one of the original tents erected as temporary shelter for the newly homeless. The fourteen-by-twelve-foot canvas structure features images from the tent cities that sprang up in the earthquake’s aftermath.

Private and government relief began arriving by April 19. Los Angeles sent provisions, medicine, and volunteers. Boston and other U.S. cities sent aid, and China provided relief specifically to Chinese San Franciscans. Relief came by ferry, ship, car, and train.

Aftershock! documents how San Francisco tried to downplay the severity of the disaster and protect its commercial future. The real estate board met a week after the earthquake and passed a resolution that the phrase “the great earthquake” should no longer be used; it would be known instead as “the great fire.” Thousands of men were quickly hired to clear the rubble and begin reconstruction. Rebuilding the city was both a physical and a marketing endeavor.

By 1909 San Francisco was ready to reclaim its metropolitan status. It hosted the Portolá Festival, to mark the 140-year anniversary of Don Gaspar de Portolá’s discovery of the Bay and celebrate the city’s recovery. Six years later the city was host to the Panama Pacific International Exposition, in what is now known as the Marina and the Palace of Fine Arts. The Exposition was ostensibly held to mark the completion of the Panama Canal and serve as the 1915 World’s Fair. It drew 18 million visitors and, with the Portolá Festival, publicly moved the city’s reputation beyond the earthquake era and into the future.

The Aftershock! exhibition also covers contemporary life in earthquake country, Californians embrace of “quake culture,” memories and photographs of the 1989 Loma Prieta quake, and current seismologic technology.

Oakland to the Rescue!, a companion exhibit (through December 31), shows how Oakland, largely undamaged by the quake and fire, with a busy port and railroad lines, served as the base for San Francisco’s recovery efforts. Gov. George C. Pardee and San Francisco businessmen temporarily moved their offices to Oakland. Many refugees took shelter across the Bay; Oakland’s Chinatown population boomed during the influx.

At the turn of the century, Oakland was California’s

After the earthquake and fire, Oakland was a headquarters for the relief effort. Photograph by Ernest Blaess. Oakland Museum of California. Gift of Patricia Brenzel Vercelli.

second largest city, with a population of 67,000. When the 1906 earthquake struck, Oakland suffered considerable damage, but it avoided the devastating fires that crippled San Francisco. Oakland’s residents responded quickly to the disaster and welcomed almost 200,000 San Franciscans who sought refuge. Oakland’s Chinatown boomed during the influx. Overnight Oakland, with its port and railroad lines, banks, and communication lines, became the base for the relief effort.

Public programs (included with museum admission)
Aftershock! is the centerpiece of a series of public programs, workshops, trips, events, and a speakers bureau coordinated by the 1906 Earthquake Centennial Alliance, a clearinghouse for local earthquake activities.

• Sunday, May 7, 2–4 p.m.
  Shocking Stories! An afternoon of “living history” performances highlighting voices from the 1906 earthquake and fire. Featuring Charlie Chin, Diane Ferlatte, and Brenda Wong. With the California Council for the Humanities, the National Japanese American Historical Society, the African American Museum and Library at Oakland, and the Chinese Historical Society of America.
  
• Sunday, May 21, 1–4 p.m.
  Family Explorations! Shake It, Don’t Break It!
  An informative and entertaining family time to explore the nature of earthquakes. Create a disaster preparedness kit and test your emergency skills. With the California Earthquake Association and Quakehold.
  
• Sunday, June 11, 2–4 p.m.
  Disaster Then and Now: Ready or Not? Novelist James Dalessandro (1906) and journalist Carl Nolte (The San Francisco Century) disagree. A screening of Dalessandro’s documentary The Damnedest, Finest Ruins closes the program.
  
• Friday, August 4, 5–9 p.m.
  A First Fridays After Five event: Shaken, Not Stirred. Martinis, Music and Mayhem. Comedy, music, cash bar, galleries and café open. Party like there’s no tomorrow!

	Aftershock! is produced with the support of the Oakland Museum Women's Board, Bank of America, California Earthquake Authority, FEMA, Quakehold, State Farm, and URS Corporation.

© 2006 Oakland Museum of California | Credits |Phone: 510-238-2200