Customer Reviews

The Alamo: An Illustrated History

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If a picture is worth a thousand words then George Nelson's "The Alamo: An Illustrated History" is worth many times that. Through much research Mr. Nelson gives you a birds eye view of the Alamo grounds through the ages with his drawings. Actually I like his drawings better than the historical drawings and photographs used in the later part of the book. Its a great book just to carry around the Alamo grounds as you try to imagine what it was really like in past times.  
I recently met Mr. Nelson at the Alamo gift shop. He was holding court, signing books and telling tales of Texas. Filling all the tourist with the "real" story of the Texas Revolution. He was sincere, knowledgeable, and seemed to really enjoy interacting with the crowd. 

"George Nelson has chosen to catalog in a chronological fashion events associated with the building of the Alamo and its geographical setting from prehistoric times to last year. . . the images speak to us and tell us of the changes endured by the most well-known building in Texas. . . (Nelson's) reconstructions add immeasurably to the reading of the public's understanding of 'What was a mission?' . . . He suceeds where many literary works fail. . . "

This is both a useful and beautiful piece of work.It is now the most frequently recommended books on the Alamo by the San Antonio Public Library.

The six original paintings by artist/author George Nelson, together with over 100 historical photographs, maps, and drawings of the Alamo and a brief chronicle of the the history of Mission San Antonio de Valero make this one useful volume for any history teacher. The paintings depict the Alamo from 1745 to 1861. Students could use these painting to gain a more complete spatial understanding of the buildings, walls, and fences of the compound. Students can compare the painting of 1836 San Antonio with a modern map to see changes in environments...photos can be primary sources for class activities...discussion of the development of the mission is particularly useful...details about inventories,epidemics, weather, construction,vistors and intrigue bring the old Alamo to life.Modern periods are synthesized and contrasted with the efforts at preservation by Adina DeZavala and Clara Driscoll. Children and teachers will find this book interesting, intriguing, and useful when studying Texas history or focusing on the Shrine's role in the development of San Antonio and Texas.

This is a highly recommended book for anyone with an interest in the Alamo,for it is an archeaologically-oriented artist's view of Alamo history. This book is clearly a visually intense overview of different developmental stages of the famous chapel and mission across the entire span of its history. Nelson makes no pretense at summarizing its history in any detail...it is not a recapitulation of the many investigations of the site...it is a very talent artist's conceptualization of what the place probably looked like at a number of strategic points in history, seen through his bird's eye view paintings...backed with some explanatory text containing evidence of why such views were created. This is a powerful work, helping the reader gain a better understanding, a more comprehensive perspective of this important complex in and around which so much of Texas history was played...worthwhile for the historian as a visual systhesis of devlopement and the archeaologist as a guide to other bits of strutures and artifacts. For the anthropologist, in terms of the ebb and the flow of many ethnic and social groups of the vicinity. A number of historical and recent photographs, especially an outstanding aerial view by the artist/author, contrast history and modern urban growth. This is a must have book.

The author takes an original perspective of the Shrine and dispels the myths that often accompany the story of Texas independence. Focus is not only on the battle but the changes through time. The copies of the original paintings, meticulously done, show the development of the Alamo, and are dotted with some interesting surprises; hours of discussion are inspired. From this reviewer's use of the book, it serves well as a teaching tool for all levels. Children find the paintings and antiquated photos interesting and spend hours examining the historical changes. College level students used the textual part for citations in research papers. The text is broken into small anecdotes, filled with surprising facts about everyday life in the town of San Antonio de Valero. The text is chronologically organized, allowing the reader to focus on time periods, from the prehistoric, with an archeological perspective, to the present day, seen in a photo by the author/illustrator. I highly recommend this book for hours of reading, discussion, and viewing of the changes of this most famous shrine.

Though a cliché, the phrase "A picture is worth a thousand words" finds worthy illustrations, even literally, in this book by artist and author George Nelson, "The Alamo: An Illustrated History."

A collection, by common usage and by operative definition, is an accumulation of objects for purposes of examination, comparison, study, display and viewing, and enjoyment. Private collections usually contain treasures only a chosen few can enjoy. Nelson has done every history enthusiast a real service by putting into literal publication this volume of Alamo images. They are, in a word, fascinating.

Though not as massive in its heft as the facsimile of Leonardo's "Leicester Codex," in format Nelson's volume could easily serve as a superb "coffee table" book. In it, one finds accounts, illustrative and written, of the Alamo's evolution throughout the centuries. Some of the artist's renderings are the author's own, and most of the photographic images are historic.

The most unique picture in the book might be the 1849 Alamo daguerreotype. It's unique mainly for two reasons: it's the first photographic image known to have been made in Texas - and it's the only known photograph of the Alamo Church before the now-iconic campanulate roof was added by the U.S. Army not long after the image was made. That there are a few people visible in the photo lends a special distinction - a human quality - to the image, even though we're seeing in it a literal freeze-frame of mid-19th-century time. That instant shows certainly not the battle that occurred there thirteen years before, or even a "reality" of daily life at the moment the photo was made: what it captures is essentially a brief view of one of history's "coffee breaks."

We should be thankful for the existence of this particular Alamo photo, and that George Nelson included it in this book. Made the very year Chopin died, the picture seems to cement the attachments that tie us to our own history. Historic photographic images like this one have certain primacies others do not, and only the most minimal reflection and effort reveal to us the important connections between the times of those photos and the corresponding people and events. As just one example, the first known photographic image ever made is a "heliograph" on a pewter panel by French lithographer Joseph Niepce. A view from his window at Gras, it took eight hours to expose, is primitive by any standards and lacks real detail. Nevertheless, that photographic image is still extraordinary: when it was made in 1826, Beethoven was still alive, with the mighty Missa Solemnis and the Ninth Symphony already two years behind him. There's no way to know that the 1849 Alamo daguerreotype has no hidden story: can anyone say that none of the people visible in that photo didn't actually witness the events of Sunday, March 6, 1836 from a safe point in or near the town of San Antonio de Bexar? Conjecture may be fruitless, but it's still fascinating.

The artist's speculative rendering of the 1836 Alamo compound, one of the finest in the book, has an odd detail. The southern main gate seems totally surrounded by a U-shaped fortification of earthworks and cannon, with two rather narrow doorways on the eastern side of the Galera (often referred to as the "Low Barracks") being the only visible means of ingress or outlet to and from the entire compound. It's conceivable the artist might be suggesting that at the time of the battle, entry and exit might have been effected via those two doorways, perhaps with the intent of maximizing protection of the compound under conditions of seige. This still leaves open certain questions about how larger apparati might have been brought in. Even if this unusual peculiarity was an oversight in the rendering - after all, nothing is "perfect" - it certainly doesn't invalidate the overall worth and quality of the book, just as a wrong note or two wouldn't invalidate an otherwise fine performance by a fine pianist.

Exemplified in Nelson's book is the "Show, don't tell" principle. The finest writers show us with prose; and as the skilled musician can "hear with his eyes" by reading a score, the finer artists can "tell" us with images rather than words. Resurrected in this book are conceptual renderings and actual photos of places in eras long gone. With such a wealth of illustrations, the book offers us a rare and fascinating opportunity for comparison and study of images that have a very direct Alamo connection.

Though there's much to learn from the written accounts given here, the images themselves are the mean feature of this book. And images - especially historic ones - can resonate with us as no written descriptions can.

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