QUAKE '06

Stanford's centennial commemoration of the 1906 earthquake is an opportunity to educate others on both the short- and long-term effects of the quake on the Stanford community. Particular focus is given to the physical, psychological, and financial impacts as well as the reactions of faculty, staff, and students that are documented in letters, documents, and news accounts... The earthquake also prompted awareness at Stanford that an active tectonic plate boundary is no place for seismically unsafe monumental architecture. Over subsequent years, the university would not only build safer buildings, but would research earthquakes and engineering methods for withstanding earthquakes. In contrast to 1906, no Stanford buildings were completely destroyed in the 1989 quake and the campus was closed for only one day... This Stanford University Archives exhibit displays 24 cases of material from the University Archive collection marking the centennial.