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EnglishWhere to Find 1989 Loma Prieta, 1991 Oakland Firestorm, and Black History Materials on sfmuseum.org
Updated
The Museum of the City of San Francisco website (sfmuseum.org) hosts dedicated online exhibits for both the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake and San Francisco's response to the 1991 Oakland firestorm, accessible from the main exhibit list on its homepage. Black history, however, is not presented as a standalone exhibit; it is distributed across the site's biography, subject, and year indexes. If you are looking for a single "Black history" page, you will not find one — you will need to browse the indexes instead.
The two disaster exhibits you asked about
Both are listed as "Major Online Exhibits" on the site's index page:
| Exhibit | What it covers | How to reach it |
|---|---|---|
| 1989 San Francisco Earthquake | The Loma Prieta earthquake | Select "1989 San Francisco Earthquake" from the major exhibit list |
| San Francisco's Response to the Oakland Firestorm | The 1991 Oakland hills firestorm, framed through San Francisco's response | Select "San Francisco's Response to the Oakland Firestorm" from the major exhibit list |
Note the framing of the second one: the exhibit is about San Francisco's response to the firestorm, not a comprehensive archive of the Oakland fire itself. If your research needs Oakland-side records, this page is a starting point rather than a full source.
How the site is organized
The homepage offers several navigation paths:
- By subject — browse topics rather than specific events
- By year — useful if you know the date of an event but not its exhibit name
- Biographies — individual life stories, which is where much of the Black history content likely sits
- Books — published works connected to the museum
- A dropdown list of Major Online Exhibits, where the earthquake and firestorm pages appear
The excerpt available does not show a separate Black history exhibit in the major exhibit list, so the biography and index routes are the practical way in.
What to expect from the 1906 material vs. the 1989/1991 material
The site's deepest archival investment is clearly the 1906 earthquake and fire. The museum has maintained a "Great Register" of the dead since 1990, a project begun by Gladys Hansen in the early 1960s and continued by Richard Hansen. The official city count was 478; the museum's register now exceeds 3,000 names and was slated for further updates. That is a decades-long, name-by-name research effort.
By contrast, the 1989 earthquake and 1991 firestorm appear as single exhibit pages within the same list. Expect a focused report rather than an equivalent register or multi-decade archive. If you need victim lists, casualty databases, or granular records for 1989 or 1991, this site is unlikely to match what it offers for 1906.
Practical steps
- Go to the sfmuseum.org homepage.
- Open the "Select a Major Online Exhibit" dropdown.
- Choose "1989 San Francisco Earthquake" or "San Francisco's Response to the Oakland Firestorm."
- For Black history, return to the homepage and use the by subject, by year, or biographies links, since no dedicated exhibit is listed.
- If you cannot find what you need, the museum accepts inquiries and contributions at [email protected] — the site also invites visitors to submit memories and materials on Bay Area history.
One caveat on scope
The museum describes itself as sustained by donations and volunteer-contributed narratives. Its coverage is therefore uneven by design: heavily curated for 1906, lighter for later events, and dependent on what has been submitted or indexed for topics like Black history. Treat the 1989 and 1991 pages as concise reports and the biography/subject indexes as a browsing tool rather than a searchable database.