Insurance vs The 1906 San Francisco Earthquake

Welcome to the Insurance vs History Podcast! In my fourth episode, I investigate how insurance saved San Francisco after the Great earthquake—or the Great Fire, depending on who you ask--almost destroyed the city entirely. Join me to learn about mitigating risk through policy wording, the concept of “directly or indirectly”, and why building a city by creating land from the bay was a terrible idea.

Selected Links:

• The Great 1906 San Francisco Earthquake (usgs.gov)
• San Francisco 1906 Earthquake - Lloyd's (lloyds.com)
• The San Francisco disaster : honest and dishonest insurance/ speech of Julius Kahn, of California, in the House of Representatives, Thursday, June 28, 1906. (berkeley.edu)
• Museum of the City of San Francisco (sfmuseum.org)
• Online Exhibit - Introduction - San Francisco Earthquake and Fire - The Bancroft Library - University of California, Berkeley
  • Online Exhibit - Buildings Sank Like Quicksand - San Francisco Earthquake and Fire - The Bancroft Library - University of California, Berkeley—photos shows the Valencia Hotel after sinking. Whoa.
  • Online Exhibit - Burned Districts of San Francisco - San Francisco Earthquake and Fire - The Bancroft Library - University of California, Berkeley Photos shows the map of the burned areas of SF.
• (99+) (PDF) Earthquake versus Fire: The Struggle over Insurance in the Aftermath of the 1906 San Francisco Disaster | Eleonora Rohland - Academia.edu article about Reinsurance and the attempt to introduce a standardized earthquake clause
• Six-20Bits-20or-20Bust-20Insurance-20Litigation.pdf (pillsburylaw.com)

Books:

• com: Seismic City: An Environmental History of San Francisco's 1906 Earthquake (Weyerhaeuser Environmental Books): 9780295742465: Dyl, Joanna L., Sutter, Paul S., Sutter, Paul S.: Books
• Disaster! The Great San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of 1906: Kurzman, Dan: 9780061051746: Amazon.com: Books

Hire These People:

• My audio editor, and AMAZING Voice Over Actor—who did all the VO for this episode: Zach Stinnett

Music Credits:

• Boulangerie by Jeremy Sherman, courtesy of NeoSounds: Boulangerie, LynneMusic | NeoSounds music library

Contact Me:

• [email protected]