Gladys Cox Hansen was an American librarian, archivist and author.
14 Facts About Gladys Hansen
1.
2.
Gladys Hansen was an expert on the history of San Francisco and the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.
3.
Gladys Hansen moved to San Francisco as a child, and lived there for the rest of her life.
4.
Gladys Hansen graduated from Lowell High School and attended San Francisco State College briefly, but did not earn a degree.
5.
At age 17, Hansen began working part-time at the Presidio branch of the San Francisco Public Library.
6.
Gladys Hansen then moved to the main branch, and by 1963 she was in charge of the California collection of the library.
7.
In 1963, Gladys Hansen began to research the identities of those killed in 1906 earthquake.
8.
In 1989, Gladys Hansen co-authored the book Denial of Disaster, claiming that the number of casualties from the earthquake was dramatically and deliberately understated.
9.
Gladys Hansen retired from the San Francisco Main Library in 1992, but continued her work on identifying earthquake victims.
10.
In 2005, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors unanimously passed a resolution, co-authored by Gladys Hansen, that set aside the official 1907 death count.
11.
In 1991, Gladys Hansen founded the Museum of the City of San Francisco.
12.
In 1997, Gladys Hansen received the Ron Ross Founder's Award from the San Francisco History Association.
13.
Gladys Hansen married William Gladys Hansen, who was an Air Corps pilot in World War II.
14.
Gladys Hansen died of natural causes in San Francisco on March 5,2017, at the age of 91.