Doheny Memorial Library, Los Angeles, CA 90089-0189 Public Domain. Release under the CC BY Attribution license--http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/--Credit both “University of Southern California. Libraries” and “California Historical Society” as the source. Digitally reproduced by the USC Digital Library; From the California Historical Society Collection at the University of Southern California Send requests to address or e-mail given USC Libraries Special Collections specol@usc.edu
Description
Photograph of a drawing of Mission San Jose by Henry Chapman Ford, ca.1883. The mission's main building features crosses on the peaks of the gables and large arched windows. To the right is wing attached to the main building. It features an arcade walkway. A short wall (or fence?) encircles the grounds in front of the mission. "Henry C. Ford was best known for his paintings of the entire chain of twenty-one California missions. He was born in Livonia, New York in 1828, but he pursued his studies in Paris and Florence during the late 1850's. He was a Civil War illustrator and veteran, and as soon as he was discharged from service, he settled in Chicago, Illinois. In Chicago, Ford became an accomplished landscapist, and was one of the founders of the Chicago Academy of Design in 1873. The studio that Ford kept in Chicago burned down in 1871. Due to his failing health, Ford moved to a milder climate, settling in Santa Barbara, California. In the summers of 1880 and 1881, he traveled by horse and buggy to each mission site south of Santa Barbara. On the mission grounds, Ford made pencil drawings and painted sketches. He was the first artist to make a set of mission images in two media, oil and etching. He went to New York to turn his renditions into etchings, which were inexpensive and could be easily duplicated. In 1893, he exhibited his mission etchings at the Chicago World's Fair. Later in his life, Ford taught and continued to paint from his Santa Barbara home. He died in 1894, leaving behind the important historical contribution of his California mission paintings." -- unknown author. "Dubbed the "Fourteenth Mission", Mission San Jose was founded on July 11, 1797 by Father Fermin Lasuen. The mission was named for Saint Joseph. Six years after the founding of the thirteenth mission in Soledad Father Lasuen was granted permission to establish an additional 5 missions, which he did in just 13 months. Mission San Jose was the first of these. Father Lasuen's plan was to locate the missions within one day's travel of another to be used as a safe rest stop for those traveling along the El Camino Real. Located east of the San Francisco Bay, Mission San Jose was in a troublesome location known to be an area populated with many runaway neophytes (Christianized Native Americans) and hostile tribes. It served as a base for military operations against those Native Americans resentful of the intrusion of the missionaries. Many skirmishes and battles took place here between the hostile natives and the Spanish soldiers. A large adobe church was built for the many converts at Mission San Jose and it stood until a violent earthquake in 1868 destroyed it. In 1869 a wooden gothic-style church was erected on the foundation of the old church. It served as a Catholic parish until 1965. In 1982 it was carefully relocated to a town called Burlingame." -- unknown author.
Type
image
Format
2 photographs : glass photonegative, photoprint, b&w 21 x 26 cm. glass plate negatives photographic prints photographs art
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