Locate primary sources, including images, objects, media, and texts. Annotations by scholars contextualize sources.
London Newspaper
This source represents both the power and importance of context when reading local sources and how the speed of information has changed drastically over time. This is the front page of the Times of London, one of the most complete and accurate newspapers in the world in the mid-1800s, on the morning after the Battle of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania, a major historical event.
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Posada Broadsheet
This broadsheet was made my Mexican printer Jose Guadlupe Posada in 1903. The broadsheet itself was called Calavera oaxaqueña, of "the skull from Oaxaca," in reference to the rural city it was published for. The broadsheet also depicts Posada's popular use of the images of skulls and crossbones, in addition to his use of print in general, as a political and cultural critique.
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Misión San Luis Obispo de Tolosa
This historic church was founded in 1772 by Spanish friars. Spain established dozens of churches throughout the US-Southwest region during the seventeenth and eighteenth century in an effort to convert the native peoples who lived there to Catholicism. These missions also helped the Crown stake its claim over the territory which was otherwise sparsely populated.
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Misión San Francisco de Asís (California)
Located near the modern-day city of San Francisco, California, this historic church was established by Spanish friars in 1776. It is also known as the Mission Dolores. Its cemetery, which houses the burial sites of indigneous individuals who lived, worked, and worshipped at this complex, remains largely intact from the eighteenth century.
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Old Mission San Luis Rey de Francia
Founded in 1798, this church belonged to the extensive network of Spanish colonial missions not only in California, but along much of the US-Mexico border. Through the eighteenth century, this region operated as the frontier zone between territories claimed by Spain, France, Britain, and indigneous groups.
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Old Mission San Juan Bautista
This historic church once belonged to Spain’s extensive network of religious institutions along the US-Mexico border. The Mission San Juan Bautista was founded in 1797, making it the fifteenth church established in modern-day California. The name of the church originates in its founding day, which was dedicated to the feast day for Saint John the Baptist.
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Misión San Juan Capistrano (California)
Throughout the eighteenth century, Spanish friars established more than twenty Spanish colonial churches across the territory that comprises the modern-day state of California. This one, named the Mission San Juan Capistrano, was founded in 1776. These institutions aimed to convert the local peoples (the Acjachemen) to Christianity and teach them Spanish ways of living and working.
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Misión Basilica San Diego de Alcalá
Throughout the eighteenth century, the Spanish Crown authorized the establishment of more than twenty churches across the area that comprises the state of California today. These institutions, along with the dozens of other churches already founded throughout the US-Southwest region, aimed to evangelize the native peoples. This complex targeted the nearby Kumeyaay peoples.
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Misión La Purísima Concepción De María Santísima
The Purísima Concepción Mission was founded in 1787 as part of a larger network of Spanish colonial churches throughout the region. By this time, ten other missions had been established in modern-day California, in addition to the dozens of others across the territory that today comprises the US-Mexico border.
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