Home from the Grand Tour: Some Thoughts on Clara Driscoll’s Vision of the Alamo as a European Ruin
Sponsored by the Texas Map Society & Barry Lawrence Ruderman Rare Maps
Twenty-two-year-old Clara Driscoll (1881–1945) had just returned to Texas from Europe in 1903 when she provided earnest money to influence the pending private sale of a key part of the former Alamo mission and fortress to a San Antonio hotel developer. “Saving the Alamo” for public preservation henceforth became Clara’s life-long obsession, launching her to legendary status. But her own place in Texas history came at the expense of an early friendship with Adina De Zavala, as well as tranquility within their shared women’s club the Daughters of the Republic of Texas, and ultimately the public’s clear understanding of what exactly is “The Alamo.” Historic preservation in 1903 was not today’s Secretary of the Interior’s Standards, but could Clara have been a little more progressive in understanding the European ruins-as-historic-sites that apparently crystalized and stagnated her concept of preserving history where it happened?
About Jim Steely
James Wright Steely is a historian and architectural historian with SWCA Environmental Consultants in Denver. He holds a Bachelor’s degree from East Texas State University, and a Master’s in architectural history and historic preservation from the University of Texas at Austin. He served in various positions for 20 years at the Texas Historical Commission, including three years as Chief Historian. From 1995 through 2002 Mr. Steely served on the adjunct faculty at UT Austin, teaching graduate courses in building documentation. His publication Parks for Texas: Enduring Landscapes of the New Deal won the T.R. Fehrenbach Book Award in 2000. His HAER documentation of the Mission 66 Transcanyon Water Line at Grand Canyon National Park won the Governor’s Preservation Award in 2016. His fellow editorial team won the San Antonio Conservation Society’s Publication Award in 2014, and Preservation Texas’ Media Award in 2013 for their Buildings of Texas volume.
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