Embedded Files
This class included a lot of photos—of the Phoenix crown and of the San Francisco earthquake. I've saved these in a separate file.
Janie Change website
For images of the Phoenix crown, and locations used in the novel, see Janie Chang's website, available at: https://janiechang.com/books/phoenix-crown/phoenix-crown-gallery/
San Francisco Earthquake, 1906
At 05:12 AM Pacific Standard Time on Wednesday, April 18, 1906, the coast of Northern California was struck by a major earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 7.9. High-intensity shaking was felt from Eureka on the north coast to the Salinas Valley, an agricultural region to the south of the San Francisco Bay area.
Devastating fires soon broke out in San Francisco and lasted for several days. More than 3,000 people died and over 80% of the city was destroyed. The event is remembered as the deadliest earthquake in the history of the United States. The death toll remains the greatest loss of life from a natural disaster in California's history and high on the list of worst American disasters.
San Francisco Earthquake, 1906
The 1906 earthquake preceded the development of the Richter scale by three decades. The most widely accepted estimate for the magnitude of the quake is 7.9; values from 7.7 to as high as 8.3 have been proposed.
According to findings published in the Journal of Geophysical Research, severe deformations in the Earth's crust took place both before and after the earthquake's impact. Accumulated strain on the faults in the system was relieved during the earthquake, the supposed cause of the damage along the segment of the San Andreas plate boundary. The 1906 rupture propagated both northward and southward for a total of 296 miles, and shaking was felt from Oregon to Los Angeles, and as far inland as central Nevada.
A strong foreshock preceded the main shock by about 20 to 25 seconds. The strong shaking of the main shock lasted about 42 seconds. There were decades of minor earthquakes – more than at any other time in the historical record for northern California – before the 1906 quake. Previously interpreted as precursory activity to the 1906 earthquake, they have been found to have a strong seasonal pattern and are now believed to be caused by large seasonal sediment loads in coastal bays that overlie faults as a result of the erosion caused by hydraulic mining in the later years of the California Gold Rush.
San Francisco Earthquake, 1906
For years, the epicenter of the quake was assumed to be near the town of Olema, in the Point Reyes area of Marin County, due to local earth displacement measurements. In the 1960s, a seismologist at UC Berkeley proposed that the epicenter was more likely offshore of San Francisco, to the northwest of the Golden Gate.
The most recent analyses support an offshore location for the epicenter, although significant uncertainty remains. An offshore epicenter is supported by the occurrence of a local tsunami recorded by a tide gauge at the San Francisco Presidio; the wave had an amplitude of approximately 3 inches and an approximate period of 40–45 minutes.
Analysis of triangulation data before and after the earthquake strongly suggests that the rupture along the San Andreas Fault was about 310 miles long, in agreement with observed intensity data.
In 2019, using an old photograph and an eyewitness account, researchers were able to refine the location of the hypocenter of the earthquake as offshore from San Francisco or near San Juan Bautista, confirming previous estimates.
San Francisco Earthquake, 1906
Early death counts ranged from 375 to over 500. However, hundreds of fatalities in Chinatown went ignored and unrecorded. The total number of deaths is still uncertain, but various reports presented a range of 700–3,000+.
In 2005, the city's Board of Supervisors voted unanimously in support of a resolution written by novelist James Dalessandro (1906) and city historian Gladys Hansen (Denial of Disaster) to recognize the figure of 3,000+ as the official total. Most of the deaths occurred within San Francisco, but 189 were reported elsewhere in the Bay Area; nearby cities such as Santa Rosa and San Jose also suffered severe damage.
San Francisco Earthquake, 1906
Between 227,000 and 300,000 people were left homeless out of a population of about 410,000; half of those who evacuated fled across the bay to Oakland and Berkeley. Newspapers described Golden Gate Park, the Presidio, the Panhandle and the beaches between Ingleside and North Beach as covered with makeshift tents. More than two years later, many of these refugee camps were still in operation.
The earthquake and fire left long-standing and significant pressures on the development of California. At the time of the disaster, San Francisco had been the 9th-largest city in the US and the largest on the West Coast.
Over a period of 60 years, the city had become the financial, trade, and cultural center of the West, operating the busiest port on the West Coast. It was the "gateway to the Pacific," through which growing U.S. economic and military power was projected into the Pacific and Asia.
Over 80% of the city was destroyed by the earthquake and fire. Though San Francisco rebuilt quickly, the disaster diverted trade, industry, and population growth south to Los Angeles, which during the 20th century became the largest and most important urban area in the West.
San Francisco Earthquake, 1906
The 1908 Lawson Report, a study of the 1906 quake led by Professor Andrew Lawson of the University of California, showed that the same San Andreas Fault which had caused the disaster in San Francisco ran close to Los Angeles as well. The earthquake was the first natural disaster of its magnitude to be documented by photography and motion picture footage and occurred at a time when the science of seismology was blossoming.
As damaging as the earthquake and its aftershocks were, the fires that burned out of control afterward were far more destructive. It has been estimated that at least 80%, and at most over 95%, of the total destruction was the result of the subsequent fires. Within three days, over 30 fires, caused by ruptured gas mains, destroyed approximately 25,000 buildings on 490 city blocks. The fires cost an estimated $350 million at the time (equivalent to $8.9 billion in 2023).
The Ham and Eggs fire, in the morning on the 18th, was started by a woman who lit her stove to prepare breakfast, unaware of the badly damaged chimney, destroying a 30-block area, including a college, the Hall of Records and City Hall.
San Francisco Earthquake, 1906
Some of the fires were started when San Francisco Fire Department firefighters, untrained in the use of dynamite, attempted to demolish buildings to create firebreaks. The dynamited buildings often caught fire. The city's fire chief, Dennis T. Sullivan, who would have been responsible for coordinating firefighting efforts, had died from injuries sustained in the initial quake. In total, the fires burned for four days and nights.
San Francisco Earthquake, 1906
One landmark buildings lost in the fire was the Palace Hotel, subsequently rebuilt, which had many famous visitors including royalty and celebrated performers. It was constructed in 1875 primarily financed by Bank of California co-founder William Ralston, the "man who built San Francisco."
Videos
Overview (3:30)
Early video from Library of Congress
National Geographic
San Francisco Earthquake, 1906 (from USGS)
The California earthquake of April 18, 1906 ranks as one of the most significant earthquakes of all time. Today, its importance comes more from the wealth of scientific knowledge derived from it than from its sheer size. Rupturing the northernmost 296 miles of the San Andreas fault from northwest of San Juan Bautista to the triple junction at Cape Mendocino, the earthquake confounded contemporary geologists with its large, horizontal displacements and great rupture length.
Indeed, the significance of the fault and recognition of its large cumulative offset would not be fully appreciated until the advent of plate tectonics more than half a century later. Analysis of the 1906 displacements and strain in the surrounding crust led Reid (1910) to formulate his elastic-rebound theory of the earthquake source, which remains today the principal model of the earthquake cycle.
At almost precisely 5:12 a.m., local time, a foreshock occurred with sufficient force to be felt widely throughout the San Francisco Bay area. The great earthquake broke loose some 20 to 25 seconds later, with an epicenter near San Francisco. Violent shocks punctuated the strong shaking which lasted some 45 to 60 seconds.
The earthquake was felt from southern Oregon to south of Los Angeles and inland as far as central Nevada.
San Francisco Earthquake, 1906 (from USGS)
One important characteristic of the shaking intensity noted in Lawson's (1908) report was the clear correlation of intensity with underlying geologic conditions. Areas situated in sediment-filled valleys sustained stronger shaking than nearby bedrock sites, and the strongest shaking occurred in areas where ground reclaimed from San Francisco Bay failed in the earthquake. Modern seismic-zonation practice accounts for the differences in seismic hazard posed by varying geologic conditions.
As a basic reference about the earthquake and the damage it caused, geologic observations of the fault rupture and shaking effects, and other consequences of the earthquake, the Lawson (1908) report remains the authoritative work, as well as arguably the most important study of a single earthquake.
In the public's mind, this earthquake is perhaps remembered most for the fire it spawned in San Francisco, giving it the somewhat misleading appellation of the "San Francisco earthquake." Shaking damage, however, was equally severe in many other places along the fault rupture. The frequently quoted value of 700 deaths caused by the earthquake and fire is now believed to underestimate the total loss of life by a factor of 3 or 4. Most of the fatalities occurred in San Francisco, and 189 were reported elsewhere.
Alice Eastwood (from untoldstories.net)
Alice Eastwood was born on January 19, 1859 in Toronto, Canada. Her childhood was a difficult one; at age 6, she promised her dying Irish mother, Eliza Jane (Gowdey) Eastwood, that she would take care of her younger siblings, Kate (who was 2 years younger than Alice) and her baby brother Sidney.
After her mother’s death, her father, Colin Skinner Eastwood, immediately left all three children in the care of relatives. During this time, Alice stayed with her Uncle Helliwell, an experimental horticulturalist in Ontario, Canada, who shared his passion for botany with young Alice, teaching her plant names and gifting her books about plants. Growing up, her two favorite wildflowers were partridge berry and wild raspberry.
Two years after her mother died, Alice and her sister moved into a convent in Oshawa, Ontario, where an elderly French priest-gardener, Father Pugh, nurtured her early botanical interest. Here Eastwood also learned about music from a French Canadian nun; later in her life she was able to earn extra money through teaching music to a woman in a nearby village.
Alice Eastwood (from untoldstories.net)
In 1873 at age 14, Eastwood joined her father in Denver. There, she helped with family expenses by working as a nursemaid taking care of the young children of the Scherrer family. This association proved fortuitous, as the Scherrers had a comprehensive multilingual library and asked her to regularly join them on camping trips in the Colorado mountains.
A local teacher and musician, Anna Palmer, tutored Eastwood, enabling her to enter high school. However, when her father’s grocery store lost money, Eastwood was forced to drop out of school and return to work. Despite this setback, her strong work ethic prevailed. Eastwood took on multiple jobs, waking at 4am to attend to the furnace in the school building, and working as a cutter’s assistant in the dress department of a downtown store. Eastwood managed to pay all her own expenses through her hard-work, bringing in enough money to support her family and returning to East Denver High School as a senior, where she graduated early.
Alice Eastwood (from untoldstories.net)
Eastwood was elected class valedictorian of her high school after years of overcoming difficult situations. Her valedictory address was published in the Denver Tribune.
Eastwood became a high school teacher instructing students in Latin, natural science, drawing and composition, and American literature for over a decade from 1879 to 1890. While working she was able to save her salary of $475 a year to fund her summer botanical explorations in the Rocky Mountains.
During her first summer after high school graduation, Eastwood learned to ride horses so that she could pursue botany in more inaccessible places. She also designed her own outfits appropriate for these expeditions, fashioning buttoned-down skirts made from heavy denim nightgowns. She traveled with minimal gear, as a tradeoff to allow her to gather specimens in heavy wooden plant presses.
The 1880s were frontier times, and despite days upon days alone collecting and exploring on foot or horseback, she never carried a gun, feeling it was a sign of fear. Eastwood said, “Never in all my experiences have I had the slightest discourtesy and I have never had any fear. I believe that fear brings danger.” On her many trips in the rugged mountain terrain, she held her own while exploring the flora and fauna by herself, getting skilled at botany, geography and geology, and interacting with the farmers, ranchers, and other settlers of the area.
Alice Eastwood (from untoldstories.net)
In May of 1887, Eastwood, then age 28, guided 66-year old Alfred Russel Wallace, the famous British naturalist and pioneer in evolutionary biology, up Gray’s Peak on a botanical collecting trip for three days. He was impressed by her botanical knowledge and skills in the field. By this time, Eastwood had established herself as a botanist and had organized the only plant collection in Colorado: Colorado University’s herbarium at Boulder.
In 1890, Eastwood quit teaching. Thanks to successful investments in real estate in Denver, she was able to dedicate herself full-time to the study of botany.
Two years later, Eastwood began working at the California Academy of Sciences on Market Street in San Francisco, after being asked to contribute articles by husband and wife botanical researchers, Townshend and Katharine Brandegee.
In 1892, she returned to Colorado and took trips to the desert country with her friend Alfred Wetherill. Mesa Verde, the old civilization and now world-famous archaeological site of the native Anasazi people, was located on the Wetherill ranch property. She was among the first known to explore one remote area of the Great American Desert and collect new specimens, some of which she named.
Alice Eastwood (from untoldstories.net)
In the summer of 1892, Eastwood was invited to join Kate Brandegee as joint curator of the California Academy; Kate offered Eastwood her entire salary by forgoing $75 a month. However, she had a romantic relationship with a journalist from the East who was living in Colorado. So, she stayed. Sadly, he was in poor health with tuberculosis and died before the two were able to marry.
After his untimely death, Eastwood accepted the Academy position. A year later in 1893, the Brandegees retired and moved to San Diego, after which Eastwood was named the Academy’s Curator of Botany. She would go on to work there for over 50 years until 1949, continuing to organize and expand the Academy’s botanical collection from the Sierra and Coast mountain ranges.
In 1901, Eastwood’s book Bergen’s Botany: Key and Flora, Pacific Coast Edition was published. She also published two small books, A Popular Flora of Denver, Colorado, and A Handbook of the Trees of California.
Alice Eastwood (from untoldstories.net)
“My desire is to help, not to shine,” Eastwood once said. The 1906 San Francisco earthquake destroyed the Academy of Sciences building. Here, Eastwood would both help and shine, physically saving more than 1,000 irreplaceable and most-valued plant species (1,211, to be precise), by entering the shattered Academy building.
She rescued the type specimens as a safeguard before fires came too close to the building; climbing the broken marble stairs as fires roared in nearby buildings. Along with a friend, she reached priceless specimens by lowering them with improvised rope, like a pulley-system, and Eastwood transported them.
She carried the collection by hand to a safer central place, and eventually they were relocated to her home. Eastwood saved not only the collection, but also books from other departments and unbroken records dating back to 1853 when the Academy had its first meeting.
By 1911, Eastwood traveled abroad after the earthquake and visited England, studying at Kew Gardens and the Natural History Museum at South Kensington. She observed Linnaeus’ own herbarium, traveled to Paris to study Jean Baptiste Lamarck’s Herbarium, and back to Britain to study at the Lindley Herbarium. She finished her studies in Cambridge, MA, stopping at the New York Botanical Gardens where she met the institution’s founder Dr. Nathaniel Britton, and returned to her job as curator at the California Academy the following year to begin rebuilding the herbarium.
Alice Eastwood (from untoldstories.net)
Eastwood was one of the few women listed in American Men of Science. In 1926, she helped start the San Francisco Garden Club. Two years later, she was elected fellow, or honored member, of the Academy.
In 1930, John Thomas Howell became her assistant/mentee, and later successor, at the Academy. During their tenure together, the two of them drove through California, Arizona and New Mexico in a used Ford convertible named “Lucy,” collecting and cataloging new pressed plant specimens. She collected near the car; he ranged further afield.
“My days of exploring on foot are over, but one can do a good deal from autos, supplemented by one’s legs,” she wrote to a friend when she was 75 years old. Together, Howell and Eastwood co-founded Leaflets of Western Botany, a quarterly periodical journal published in San Francisco about the American West, mostly California’s, plants.
In 1938, Golden Gate Park received funds for an arboretum with a new Shakespeare garden, Eastwood’s idea since 1928. The creation of the arboretum was carried out by Katherina Agnes Chandler, using more than 200 plants from Shakespeare’s writings; the garden is now used for weddings.
Alice Eastwood (from untoldstories.net)
In 1949, Eastwood retired as curator at age 90, after remaining at the Academy for 57 years. Many honors were bestowed upon her by botanists and horticulturists alike.
The Academy’s herbarium, the Alice Eastwood Herbarium, was named after her for her pioneering action in 1893, in the Academy’s Alice Eastwood Hall of Botany. This was
“my child . . . dearer to me than life,” Eastwood said.
By the end of her tenure, she had added a total of 340,000 specimens to its collection and had built up a fine botanical library with her own funds.
She died of cancer on October 30, 1953 at age 94.
Next week:
The Phoenix Crown
Kate Quinn, Janie Chang
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