Oakland Museum at the Oakland International Airport

Arequipa Pottery
February 23 – May 11, 2001
Location: Terminal One just inside the main entrance doors

Following San Francisco’s earthquake and fire of 1906, dust- and ash-filled air contributed to a tuberculosis epidemic in the city. Particularly hard hit were working, urban women—dressmakers, stenographers, clerks, factory workers—who worked indoors in close quarters, in contrast to their male counterparts who worked outdoors to rebuild the city. At the time, the only treatment for this illness required total bed rest, a difficult if not impossible thing for these working women to achieve.

An enlightened San Francisco physician, Dr. Philip King Brown, set about to establish a treatment center specifically for working women. To launch his project, Brown gained the support of local artists and the area’s philanthropic community. He named the treatment center Arequipa Sanatorium, after a Peruvian town whose name was thought to mean "place of peace" or "place of rest." Situated in rural Marin County, about a dozen miles north of San Francisco, the sanatorium opened in November 1911.

The treatment of tuberculosis was indirectly linked to the philosophy of the Arts and Craft movement of the time. Creating and using handcrafted objects were seen as steps on a path to peace and good health. In the case of sanatorium patients, craft work combated idleness while at the same time avoiding the stigma of charity, since patients could sell their work and contribute to the cost of their treatment.

Arequipa Pottery, Vase; c. 1913, Gift of the Estate of Helen Hathaway White

Nationally known British ceramists—Frederick Hürton Rhead, Albert Solon and Fred Wilde—were successively hired by Dr. Brown to direct the pottery. Patients produced a range of wares, including many of high artistic achievement. The bulk of production was simple objects that bore evidence of the patients’ modest skill level and exuded a charm that both consumers in the early twentieth century and collectors of today have found appealing.

The Arequipa Pottery went into decline with the onset of World War I and production ceased after 1923, though the sanatorium didn’t officially close until 1958. The Oakland Museum of California started collecting Arequipa pottery shortly thereafter. The pieces on display at Oakland International Airport are but a small portion of the collection, which can be seen in the larger exhibit "Fired by Ideals" currently on display at the Oakland Museum of California through April 29th.

Also on display at the Oakland Airport is "Well Heeled".