- Title: San Antonio de Bexar 1846
- Author: U.S. Senate Report
- Date: 1850
- Condition: See bottom of description
- Inches: 6 3/4 x 4 1/2 [Image]
- Centimeters: 17.14 x 11.43 [Image]
- Product ID: 308133
Very Early Image of San Antonio
Fine lithograph from Memoir Descriptive of the March of a Division of the United States Army, Under the Command of Brigadier General John E. Wool, from San Antonio de Bexar, in Texas, to Saltillo, in Mexico, 1849-50
This slim U. S. Senate report on the Mexican War included one of the first published lithographs of the San Antonio to have been made from an eye-witness drawing. In addition to the view of San Antonio and a depiction of the pre-restoration, crumbling ruin known as the Alamo, the book also contains lithographs of the Alamo's interior, the façade of the Mission of San Jose, and a view of Mission Concepcion.
Curtis Burr Graham made the lithographic plates from drawings and watercolors by London-born Edward Everett in 1846. Everett worked as a machinist and engineer in Illinois before joining the U.S. Army in 1843. Sent to Texas in 1846 for service in the Mexican War and assigned to collect information on the history and customs of the San Antonio area, he began sketching and drawing the Alamo and other missions. He also helped remodel part of the Alamo for military offices and storage. When Major George W. Hughes, chief topographical engineer for General Wool prepared a report of Wool's march to Mexico, he commissioned Curtis Graham to make four lithographs from Everett's San Antonio drawings for the publication.
Visual documents of early Texas are extremely scarce, and highly prized by collectors and institutions alike.
References: Kelsey and Hutchison, Engraved Prints of Texas 1554-1900, p. 37, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; https://www.mfah.org/research/powell-library/acquisition-highlights-powell-library, accessed 3-17-2023
Condition: On a trimmed sheet with one ½ inch marginal tear bottom right not entering image, with archival repair, else fine.