Review: Guarding the Golden Gate: A History of the U.S. Quarantine Station in San Francisco Bay, by J. Gordon Frierson

Abstract

Gordon Frierson’s study examines the history of a quarantine station on Angel Island in San Francisco Bay. Although much larger than better-known Alcatraz Island, it is remarkable how such an isolated location had ties to larger medical, social, and political issues such as California politics, a yellow fever outbreak in New Orleans, anti-Chinese discrimination in the United States, global migration, anti-vaccine movements and two world wars. The author has a gift for narrative and human detail. Overall, this was a beautifully written, jargon-free, and concise work on the important topic of quarantine and public health, as well as the medical history of California.The core of this history is a meticulously researched account of the creation and work of a quarantine station that was designed to protect the West Coast from epidemic diseases. From the start—the arrival of the tramp steamer Altonower in 1882 with smallpox—anti-Asian discrimination determined how people at risk were treated, sometimes with high human costs. When plague arrived in San Francisco in 1900 (p. 64) only Chinatown was quarantined, as authorities literally enclosed it with barbed wire. Neighboring residences were left alone, and quarantine policies were defined by race (p. 67). At the same time, businesses did not want to accept that the threat from plague was real (p. 69), newspapers said that the plague was fake news, and people refused to take the (perhaps ineffective) vaccine (p. 65). Health leaders faced death threats (pp. 68–69), and one took to carrying a revolver. The federal government pushed for strict measures, while the governor fought against taking action. Of course we read the past in the context of our present concerns, so this book reflects many issues related to our current experience of COVID-19, even though our contemporary pandemic is only mentioned in the last two pages.Much of the book details the practical struggles that defined the station’s life. A great deal of this work dealt with fumigation, a truly terrifying topic. One chapter is titled “The Cyanide Era.” Five men (p. 120) died during the fumigation of just one Japanese ship. While extreme measures were taken to prevent plague infected rats from entering the city, class and race always defined public health policy. Parts of the book read as social history, such as when most passengers had to submit to invasive testing, while first-class passengers strolled off the ship with barely a glance from the doctors (p. 78).Frierson’s history of the Angel Island quarantine station (1891–1949) is a thoroughly researched narrative history, which speaks to how public health is shaped by broader social issues, including discrimination and class. Overall, Frierson’s account provides a nuanced but positive depiction of the station’s work, which was ultimately rendered obsolete by medical advances and technological changes. Highly recommended.