A scholar in uniform, ethnologist John Gregory Bourke (1846-96) wrote and he wrote and he wrote—over a hundred field notebooks, several published books, among them The Snake Dance of the Moquis of Arizona and On the Border with Crook, and dozens of articles. He also loved to talk, which he did with impish charm and a glint in his gray eyes. Born in Philadelphia of Irish immigrant parents and schooled by Jesuits, he fought as a teenager in the Civil War, attended West Point, and graduated eleventh in a class of thirty-nine.

In 1881, while aide-de-camp to General George Crook, Bourke requested a special assignment to study the Indians of the Military Division of the Missouri south of the Union Pacific Railroad, particularly the Pueblos of New Mexico and Arizona. Like Adolph F. Bandelier, his contemporary, Lieutenant Bourke elaborated on his field notes by sketching—Indian symbols, artifacts, clothing styles, architectural details, plans, and maps.

The twenty-three mission churches, painted directly on notebook page or on separate sheet pasted in, Bourke executed between May 19 and November 11, 1881. Judging from contemporary photographs, his renderings are remarkably accurate. In a number of cases, however, concentrating on facade alone, he chose to ignore adjoining walls or conventos. The complete set—including Ysleta, Texas—is reproduced here through the courtesy of the U.S. Military Academy, West Point.

I. Nambé

II. Pojoaque

III. San Ildefonso

IV. Santa Cruz de la Cañada.

V. San Juan

VI. Picurís.

VII. Las Trampas.

VIII. San Jerónimo de Taos, ruin.

IX. San Jerónimo de TAos

X. Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe de Taos (village).

XI. Santa Clara.

XII. Santa Domingo

XIII. Sandía.

XIV. Cochití.

XV. San Felipe

XVI. Santa Ana.

XVII. Zia.

XVIII. Jémez.

XIX. Laguna.

XX. Ácoma.

XX. Ácoma.

XXI. Zuñi.

XXII. Isleta.

XXIII. Ysleta, Texas.

Copyright © 1980 by the University of New Mexico Press. All rights reserved. Material from this edition published for the Cultural Properties Review Committee by the University of New Mexico Press may not be reproduced in any manner without the written consent of the author and the University of New Mexico Press.