Mission San José, San Antonio, TX - Philatelic Photographs on Waymarking.com

Mission San José was established in 1720 by decree of José de Azlor, the second Marqués de San Miguel de Aguayo and then current Spanish governor of Coahuila and Texas. It was founded by Father Antonio Margil de Jesús who sought to supplement the existing San Antonio de Valero Mission which is commonly called the Alamo, and which was becoming overcrowded. Named for St. Joseph and the aforementioned Marqués de Aguayo, it became the largest and most successful of the Spanish missions along the San Antonio River.

The stamp, however, commemorates the centennial of the establishment of Fort Bliss in what is now the city of El Paso, Texas. Actually, the centennial marked the end of the Mexican-American War and the signing of the Treaty of Hidalgo in 1848. Among other things, this treaty established the Rio Grande as the boundary between Mexico and the State of Texas. The U.S. Government decided to send soldiers into the area that is now El Paso to defend the new border, but the troops didn’t arrive until 1849 and the military post wasn’t called Fort Bliss until 1854.

There is an awful lot of detail on this postage stamp. Besides the adobe buildings that served as the first barracks for Fort Bliss, there is also a V-2 rocket (portrayed ostensibly because Wernher von Braun was brought to Fort Bliss after World War II) and the Franklin Mountains, one of two ranges that form “the Pass.” Moreover, in an attempt to portray the natural beauty and Spanish colonial heritage of west Texas, there is some desert flora in the upper left corner and an old Spanish mission in the upper right. The intention was probably to show one of the missions along the Rio Grande near El Paso but a photo of Mission San José in central Texas was used instead. Perhaps they thought that if you’ve seen one old Spanish mission you’ve seen them all or maybe the lack of attention to detail was due to too many commemorative stamps being issued in 1948 (28 in all). In any event, this stamp was the first U.S. stamp to show a rocket and also the first to show a camel (you have to look really close to see the camel).

Mission San José had fallen into disrepair by the end of the nineteenth century and the dome had collapsed during a storm. (The photo on which the stamp’s design was based was taken before the dome was restored, so it’s not present on the stamp image.) Substantial restoration was accomplished during the 1930s by various New Deal programs and today, Mission San José is part of the San Antonio Missions National Historical Park.

Stamp Issuing Country: United States Date of Issue: 5-Nov-1948 Denomination: 3c Color: henna brown Stamp Type: Single Stamp Relevant Web Site: [Web Link]

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Date Logged Log User Rating   12/31/2022 wanderfish visited it