Alamo Drawing by Francis Moore 1840

[cantador4u]

I came across a drawing of the Alamo, done in 1840 by Francis Moore, JR. I've not seen this drawing before and wonder if anyone knows anything about it. I found it in the Wikimedia Commons at this URL:
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Alamo_drawing_by_Francis_Moore_Jr_in_1840_001.jpg
It says about it,
This is probably the first drawing of the Alamo ever published. It is the Alamo Mission in San Antonio, TX, and likely is based on a drawing by Mary Ann Adams Maverick from 1838. This was later republished in Frank Thompson's 2005 book "The Alamo". Source - Francis Moore, Jr's 1840 "Map and Description of Texas".

I've not posted a picture before and I hope I do it correctly.


I came across a 2nd picture I have not seen before in HS Thrall's 1876 book, A History of Texas. You can download the book from Google Books. I have no idea who drew it, and is not accurate. Sort of like Labastida and Navarro, it gives you a good general idea or impression of it but is not accurate.
None-the-less, I'll add it to my collection of Alamo drawings.


Paul Meske

[TRK]

Paul, thanks for posting those. Both prints have been published and written about in several books and articles over the last 30 years, including George Nelson's The Illustrated Alamo. I'm out of town today, but if somebody doesn't beat me to it, I'll post references tomorrow.

[majorevans08]

The first is in Nelson, p. 55, listed as being housed at Institute of Texas Culture. Nelson gives date as 1839-40. The second *resembles* Alamo, 1845, by John Antonio Beckmann, found in Alamo Images, by Susan Prendergast Schoelwer, Dallas: DeGolyer & S. Methodist U. Press, 1985. On p. 44 of that work, the *first* image appears, attributed to William Bissett, 1840, frontispiece to Francis Moore's Map and Description of Texas (Phila.). See Schoelwer for details.

[cantador4u]

Thanks for the info. I came across a book titled Engraved Prints of Texas, 1554-1900, By Mavis Parrott Kelsey, Robin Brandt Hutchison and can be read at the following URL:
books.google.com/books?id=XmuurrodckwC&pg=PA34&lpg=PA34&dq=francis+moore+alamo&source=bl&ots=SzafixmaVj&sig=6vxgnGVKAI4QpCANlCrepmuHfEg&hl=en&ei=UouoSezlO9CIngfsi7DnDw&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=4&ct=result#PPA36,M1

Page 34 begins the section with the Alamo and other Spanish missions of Texas. Unfortunately they do not permit you to see the pictures that are in the book, nor can you download it but it tells as such things as where an image was used, if it was a derivative work, who did it, and other such info.

- Paul Meske

[Allen Wiener]

If the link was too long, try this:

books.google.com/books?id=XmuurrodckwC&pg=PA34&lpg=PA34&dq=francis+moore+alamo&source=bl&ots=SzafixmaVj&sig=6vxgnGVKAI4QpCANlCrepmuHfEg&hl=en&ei=UouoSezlO9CIngfsi7DnDw&sa=X&oi=book_ result&resnum=4&ct=result#PPA36,M1

AW

[marklemon]

Feb 28, 2009 10:11:46 GMT -5 TRK said:

Paul, thanks for posting those. Both prints have been published and written about in several books and articles over the last 30 years, including George Nelson's The Illustrated Alamo. I'm out of town today, but if somebody doesn't beat me to it, I'll post references tomorrow.

Tom,
I know it was an honest gaffe, but Nelson's book is "the Alamo, An Illustrated History."
Mark

[sloanrodgers]

Feb 27, 2009 20:41:57 GMT -5 cantador4u said:

I came across a drawing of the Alamo, done in 1840 by Francis Moore, JR. I've not seen this drawing before and wonder if anyone knows anything about it. I found it in the Wikimedia Commons at this URL:
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Alamo_drawing_by_Francis_Moore_Jr_in_1840_001.jpg
It says about it,
This is probably the first drawing of the Alamo ever published. It is the Alamo Mission in San Antonio, TX, and likely is based on a drawing by Mary Ann Adams Maverick from 1838. This was later republished in Frank Thompson's 2005 book "The Alamo". Source - Francis Moore, Jr's 1840 "Map and Description of Texas".

I'm not sure, but the first published illustration of the Alamo Mission is probably some Spanish
colonial source. Nelson shows a couple maps with crude drawings of the Alamo. One's an 1836
illustration of the Alamo (page 51) from a map by Jose Sanchez-Navarro. I assume some of the
maps were published before and after the siege, but this might be a misconception.