Shake it up, baby

I guess it’s pure coincidence that on the day Gridskipper ran a piece on SFMoMA and the Legion of Honor’s respective exhibits on the 1906 quake and fire, the Bay Area was rocked by two minor quakes. (Well, ok, not exactly rocked — they were barely felt — but a mildly freaky coincidence nonetheless.) To be sure, I’m very interested in seeing both these exhibits. The MoMA’s 1906: A Disaster in Pictures offers a collection of photographs of the devastated city just after the quake and fires. The Legion of Honor’s After the Ruins, 1906 and 2006: Rephotographing the San Francisco Earthquake and Fire takes it one step further, juxtaposing images of the destruction with contemporary images taken from the same perspectives, showing the rebirth of our fair city.

San Francisco CityGuides is offering three special tours in commemoration of the quakes: Phoenix Rising, It Can’t Happen Here and Are We There Yet? As a CityGuide myself, I can vouch for the entertainment and education value of these tours.

Of course, if you’re just too damned lazy to get off your butt and get some culture, there are three amazing online sources of images to peruse: The Library of Congress’ American Memory collection’s Before and After the Great Earthquake and Fire: Early Films of San Francisco, 1897-1916; San Francisco Public Library’s image library’s Earthquakes: 1906; and UC Berkeley Bancroft Library’s The 1906 Earthquake and Fire.

1906: A Disaster in Pictures [SFMoMA]Legion of Honor’s After the Ruins, 1906 and 2006: Rephotographing the San Francisco Earthquake and Fire [Legion of Honor]Phoenix Rising, It Can’t Happen Here and Are We There Yet? [CityGuides]Before and After the Great Earthquake and Fire: Early Films of San Francisco, 1897-1916 [Library of Congress]The 1906 Earthquake and Fire [Bancroft Library]Earthquakes: 1906 [SFPL]