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 the ruins of Mission San Diego de Alcala (founded 1769), California, ca.1880. At left are the remnants of what used to be the façade of the church. The stucco has fallen off of the adobe brick walls. The parapet still maintained its form even though parts of the edges have fallen. Adobe bricks from the walls of the dilapidated mission now litter the floor near the entrance. To the right is probably where the arcade used to stand. Not only the building portion remains without any covered passageway. A woman and three boys stand near the corner of the church and the arcade. "It was a pitiful group of missionaries and soldiers who gathered on the shore of San Diego Bay on July 1, 1769. Of the 219 Spaniards who had left Lower California two months before, only half were still alive. Of the survivors, many were sick and exhausted. Even so, after two weeks' rest Governor Portola gathered the strongest men about him and set off northward in an attempt to locate Vizcaino's Bay of Monterey. Two days later, on July 16, 1769, a crude brushwood shelter had been erected, and there, Father Serra established Mission San Diego de Alcalá, which was to be the first of the famous California missions. The Indians, however, were slow in accepting the blessings offered. [...]" -- unknown author.
Type
image
Format
1 photograph : glass photonegative, b&w 21 x 26 cm. glass plate negatives photographs
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