Item description for THE SAN ANTONIO MISSIONS: EDWARD EVERETT AND THE AMERICAN OCCUPATION, 1847

THE SAN ANTONIO MISSIONS: EDWARD EVERETT AND THE AMERICAN OCCUPATION, 1847

By Richard Eighme Ahlborn

Well illustrated with a map, numerous old prints and drawings of missions and the Alamo, and 5 full-color paintings by Edward Everett. There is also a rare photograph of the Alamo, circa 1860. A sketch artist, draftsman and mapmaker, Edward Everett was born in London, England and immigrated to the United States with his family in 1841 when he was age 23. They lived in Quincy, Illinois where his family had distinguished ties. His uncle, the man for whom young Edward was named, was United States Senator Edward Everett. Other family members were Edward Everett Hale, short story writer; Nathan Hale, the famous patriot; and novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne. The younger Edward Everett listed his occupation as machinist and engineer.

He joined the military and was involved in quelling a disturbance in Nauvoo, Illinois related to Mormon settlers. In 1846, the militia company reorganized into Company A, First Illinois Volunteers, and to be part of the Mexican War, the company traveled to San Antonio via New Orleans and Port Lavaca. Everett, whose talents were apparently well known to his company leaders, was assigned the task of drawing city monuments of San Antonio, and other distinguishing landmarks of the area including sketches of Mission San Antonio, the Alamo. His depictions became some of the earliest views for Americans of San Antonio and its missions. Everett's originals are at the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, and his drawings of the Alamo are highly detailed, showing both the facade and interior. By his skillful use of watercolor, Everett also imparted a sense of Texas light and heat as well as a sense of the spirit of this place

For utilization of the Alamo, he drew plans to use it as an army supply depot. Two years later, in 1848, he went to Washington DC where he was assigned as a civilian draftsman in the Department of Topographical Engineers. Everett's watercolor renderings became the basis for prints produced in 1850 to accompany the U.S. government report on the Mexican campaign. Moreover, the images he gathered from his short sojourn in Texas in 184748 apparently made quite an impression on him because nearly fifty-years later, near the end of his life, he wrote a detailed account of those years.

In 1851, Edward Everett returned to Quincy and subsequently lived in Sing Sing, New York and Roxbury, Massachusetts where he died in 1903.

The book is complete and in VERY GOOD condition with some overall wear.