Bottle

This black glass bottle was warped by the heat of the fires following the 1906 earthquake. Red writing, by the man who originally found the bottle, reads "San Francisco April 18, 1906."

In the early morning of April 18, 1906, the earth shuddered underneath San Francisco. The 7.7 to 7.9 magnitude earthquake remains one of the worst urban disasters in U.S. history. Around 4,000 people died as a direct result of the earthquake and resulting fire that burned the city for three days. However, the important story about the earthquake does not reside in the quake or fire, but in the human response to the disaster. Some individuals benefited tremendously in the aftermath of the disaster while others did not. Though the 1906 earthquake only lasted for approximately sixty seconds, its impact far outlasted its length.