1906 Earthquake
San Francisco supervisors are revising the official death toll from the 1906 earthquake from 478 to a more realistic number. According to Gladys Hansen, now the curator at the Museum of the City of San Francisco:
the tally overlooked single women, who were not registered in the city directory, as well as Chinese, Japanese and Irish workers, many of whom were illegal immigrants.
She puts the toll at closer to 3,000. I saw a presentation years ago, and it may have been by Gladys Hansen, where the presenter showed photos that had been retouched to minimize the earthquake damage. The thinking being (and this is from memory) that politicians didn't want to scare away business and settlers. A fire was an acceptable disaster given the Chicago fire of 1871, but an earthquake would scare away settlers and business.
posted by Dave @ 7:27 PM
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