The Center's Barker Texas History Collection contains books, manuscript collections, maps, newspapers, and other materials that document the historical development of Texas from Spanish colonization to the present day. Among its holdings are these items relating to Anglo-American settlement, the Texas Revolution, and the Texas Republic. No part of this exhibit may be reproduced in any form without the permission of the Center for American History, the University of Texas at Austin.

		Daguerreotype and Case				Daguerreotype close-up
		Top, close-up				Alamo, Close-up

Daguerreotype of the Alamo, 1849. From the Photograph Collection, The Center for American History.

The earliest datable photograph taken in Texas is this 1849 daguerreotype of the front of the Alamo chapel. It is the only known photograph of the Alamo taken before the 1850 reconstruction that added the distinctive curved gable to the top of the church facade.

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