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 an etching of Mission Santa Clara de Asis as of 1860 by Henry Chapman Ford, 1885. The church, at right, has a tall square bell tower at its left corner. A low fence encloses the small yard in front of the main entry. A long and low building extends as a wing from the church to the left. The wing has an extended roof that provides for an arcade like walkway down this lengthy building. A small child is standing in the courtyard facing a cross jutting from the grounds in front of the church. "It was the intention of the padres to found another mission in pretty meadowland a few miles south of San Francisco Bay as soon as the San Francisco mission was well established. The mission of Santa Clara indeed was established only three months later on January 12, 1777. To the dismay of the missionaries, in six more months there arrived a large group of colonists from Mexico. The padres did their best to keep the mission and the pueblo separated, well knowing the detrimental influence of civilians on the neophytes. Ultimately, mission and pueblo grew into the twin cities of Santa Clara and San Jose. In 1784 the mission had to be abandoned because of damage from a great flood. A new site on higher ground was soon occupied, with the help of skilled artisans from the pueblo whose work gave the buildings a much more professional appearance. Yet this skill came to naught in 1818 when an earthquake effectively destroyed the mission again. With seemingly boundless energy the padres built a third time, with everything completed by 1825." -- unknown author. "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.
Type
image
Format
3 photographs : glass photonegative, photoprints, b&w 21 x 26 cm. glass plate negatives photographic prints photographs art
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