Portfolio "Etchings of the Franciscan Missions of California," 1883 24 matted drypoint etchings on Japan paper in a leather bound portfolio case with 28-page "Outlines of History, Description, etc." on stitched Antique paper, The Studio Press, New York, 1883, pub. Each of the 24 etchings signed and named in the plate: H.C. Ford / 83, signed in pencil lower right, numbered in pencil lower left Each sheet: 14.25" H x 18" W; Each mat: 16" H x 22" W Provenance: Private Collection, Santa Barbara, California Literature: Spalding, 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 12, 14, 16, 15, 17, 18, 19, 20, 24, 22, 21, 23, 26, 27, 25, 28, 19 (edition complete and in the order, numbered as found in the catalog raisonne) With a 4-page pamphlet featuring accolades from peers and listing the Missions within the Imperial Edition. Notes: Henry Chapman Ford was an illustrator born in Livonia, NY in 1859. Having saved enough money, Ford traveled to Paris to study art. Three years later, he returned to the United States and enlisted in the Civil War, serving in the Union Army. The illustrated press published his drawings of military life throughout his service. Due to medical conditions, Ford was discharged and eventually settled in Chicago, Illinois where he became the city's first great landscape painter. Ford also made a name for himself as a founder and president of the Chicago Academy of Design. Desiring a warmer climate, he ultimately made his way west to Santa Barbara. Ford embarked upon a project to paint, draw, and create etchings of each of the California Missions, traveling by horse and buggy to each of them. His most iconic works focus on the architectural structures and the surrounding untamed landscapes of the West. The portfolio of 24 etchings by Studio Press, New York, is said to have reinvigorated interest in the state's Spanish origins and "rank among the best records that remain… of [the] mission buildings in the period of their neglect..."1 Of special note among the 24 etchings is the Santa Barbara Mission before its destruction in the 1925 earthquake, as well as the ruins of the old La Purisima Mission, damaged by earthquake in 1812, and now only a remnant of what Ford records. 1 E.S. Spaulding, Etchings of California by Henry Chapman Ford, Pacific Coast Publishing Company, Santa Barbara, CA, 1961, foreword