Arequipa Pottery

Arequipa Pottery was a type of Arts and Crafts style pottery produced in Marin County, California, in the United States from 1911 until 1918. Arequipa Pottery differs from many Arts and Crafts pottery businesses because it was produced as part of the therapy process for women recovering from tuberculosis in the San Francisco Bay Area. The pottery was also produced from local clay.

Arequipa Pottery was established by Dr. Philip King Brown as part of the rehabilitative therapy program at a tuberculosis sanatorium located outside of Fairfax, California. The pottery was active from 1911 through 1918.

Following the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, dust-and ash-filled air contributed to a tuberculosis epidemic in San Francisco. The incidence of the disease was much higher among women than men. The Arequipa Sanatorium, directed by Brown, was opened to serve women in the first stages of tuberculosis. At the time, the only known treatment was rest and good nutrition, in the hopes that the lungs could recover and heal.

Brown got his first taste of running a sanatorium when he inherited a large house left to him by a wealthy relative located in Santa Barbara, California. The name of this facility was Miradero, established to rehabilitate "nervous cases." At that time, treatment for tuberculosis, or TB, in a sanatorium was costly and there were few alternatives where working-class women could go to recover from this illness. Brown was active with the San Francisco Tuberculosis Polyclinic, which was a facility where people learned about the prevention and treatment of tuberculosis. This experience motivated Brown's desire to establish a facility which was affordable for working-class women.

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