The Spanish mission era in Texas began in the 1690s, and ended in 1821, when Mexico gained its independence from Spain, though some missions started later and/or ended earlier. The years of most successful operation were from 1745 to 1775. According to one authority, there were 44 missions established in Texas at one time or another. Most had limited success, and did not last long. Most of these are represented today by a few ruins at most, and in many cases there is no trace whatever.
Since this is a photographic survey, we can consider only those for which there is something to photograph, other than ruins. Even if we include every surviving or restored building which has some relation to missions, the list in Texas comes to ten. Of these, I am excluding one: Mission San Antonio de Valero, better known as the Alamo. I cannot work up an interest in taking yet more pictures of this universally recognized ikon. So that leaves nine.
In the process of photographing these missions, I naturally learned a good many things that lie outside the realm of photography, such as how the missions were built, how they were operated, and what they accomplished. My impressions from all this led me to some ideas about the missions which I have not heard expressed before. Therefore, I decided to summarize these here.
Before proceeding, I should mention that, while these are all Texas missions, they are not the whole story. There are missions in New Mexico, Arizona, Georgia, Florida and California as well. In particular, the ones in California are better known. There are 21 of them, and Californians have taken more of an interest in them than Texans have in their missions. The missions in all states, however, have a lot in common with each other, so what I say here seems to apply to all of them.