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Images needed-Tucson, AZ-San Agustin



Archive Folks,
The City of Tucson, AZ is undertaking a major effort to document and
possibly interpretively reconstruct part of its early Spanish Colonial
history.  There is a downtown site that has apparently been occupied
(from archaeological evidence) for at least 4,000 years.  Irrigation
canals dug in this area may be the oldest evidence of irrigated cropping
in the United States.  Between 1770 and 1790 a chapel and "Convento"
were constructed of adobe brick on this site.  While not truly a mission
- it was a visita without a resident priest - it has long been called
the San Agustín mission.  The complex was abandoned in the late 19th
Century and the last vestiges were bulldozed to make way for a city dump
in the 1950s.  Ah, progress.  The "mission" complex was a highly visible
man-made intrusion onto the flat river-cut terrace of this area and so
drew early photographers and a few early artists.  We have scoured local
resources and federal repositories for images of the mission complex and
have found enough visual information to generate a virtual computer
reconstruction of the Convento building (really a
warehouse/office/residence complex).  No photographic and little sketch
material of the adjacent chapel has been located.  Photographs of this
area are known and were issued as postcards and in other formats.
Unfortunately we are lacking views from certain angles that would allow
virtual reconstruction of all four sides of the Convento complex or any
of the chapel.  What I am hoping is that out there somewhere in an
archive that someone of you is connected with there are unknown views of
this building awaiting discovery.  There may be post card views, view
books of the Tucson area or cabinet cards.  The views would show a
fairly massive, two-story, adobe brick structure with some areas in
collapse.  There would be arched doorway/window openings on both the
ground level floor and upper story.  The roof would be flat and if
viewed from an elevation would be missing in part.  The images might be
identified as Mission San Agustín, the Convento, Old Mission on the
Santa Cruz River in Tucson, etc.  Several views e.g., Carlton Watkins)
were taken from "A" Mountain just to the West of the site.  These are
usually labeled something like "view of Tucson from mountain [to the
west]".  Some of these views may have been taken in conjunction with the
arrival of the railroad in the early 1880s.  If you need any further
information you can e-mail me or call at 520.744.2028.  Scanned images
or faxed (520.889.5660) eagerly awaited.  I know its a long shot but
archivists seem to be excellent eidetic imagers and you may have run
across something in your archival voyages.  Dick King, University of
Arizona

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