Dr. Kathleen K. Gilmore’s Legacy and the Future of Spanish and French Colonial Archaeology in Tejas
Part of: Society for Historical Archaeology 2017
When Kathleen K. Gilmore helped found the SHA in Dallas fifty years ago, she was on the threshold of a pioneering career investigating the archaeology of Spanish and French colonialism in Texas and Louisiana. Through tireless archaeological and archival investigations until her death in 2010, Dr. Gilmore reshaped scholarly and public understanding of the colonial landscape, and through her passion and philanthropy, she reinvigorated the interest of students, colleagues, and the public in this critical historical period. Fifty years later, Dr. Gilmore’s legacy continues to shape the present and future archaeology and history of the region. The papers in this symposium explore her legacy through current research into Spanish, French, and indigenous experiences during the 17th and 19th centuries that draw from the past to advance the frontiers of our knowledge into the future.
Other Keywords
Missions •
Texas •
Tejano •
Management •
Trade •
Ethnic Identity •
Acequias •
Presidios •
Ranchos •
Spanish Missions
Temporal Keywords
Spanish colonial •
18th Century •
Spanish Colonial and Mexican Era •
French Colonial •
18th century- 21st century
Geographic Keywords
North America •
Coahuila (State / Territory) •
New Mexico (State / Territory) •
Oklahoma (State / Territory) •
Arizona (State / Territory) •
Texas (State / Territory) •
Sonora (State / Territory) •
United States of America (Country) •
Chihuahua (State / Territory) •
Nuevo Leon (State / Territory)
Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-10 of 10)
- Documents (10)
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18th-Century San Antonio Spanish Colonial Mission Complexes: An Evolution, American Revolution, and Tejano Ranchos1 (2017)
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Recent historical archaeology studies have provided new perspectives of indigenous interaction with Spanish Colonial Missions in the United States. By 1718, Texas colonists were the product of Spanish and native intermarriage for over 200 years before their arrival. Few studies have considered the multicultural aspects’ effect to the historic landscape and archaeological record. An emic perspective of how 18th-Century Tejano Ranchos evolved from the Spanish Mission complex has yet to be...
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Adding and Subtracting: Manipulating Ceramic Manufacture to Signal Cultural Identity Among Indigenous Populations of the San Antonio Missions (2017)
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The analysis of ceramic assemblages was a corner stone of Dr. Gilmore's approach to Spanish Colonial Studies. Following this tradition, the presentation uses the results of pertrographic analyses of native-made ceramics assemblages from several of the South Texas and coastal plains missions to track the manipulation of manufacture techniques among ethinically distinct indigenous groups. The combination of microscopic ceramic fabric characteristics with macroscopic decorative approaches suggest...
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Blazing Trails and Chasing Scoundrels: Kathleen K. Gilmore’s contribution to Spanish Colonial Archaeology in Texas and the Relentless Pursuit of Presidio Captain Felipe Rabago y Teran. (2017)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
No history of Spanish Colonial archaeology in Texas is complete without addressing the accomplishments of Dr. Kathleen K. Gilmore. When reviewing her nearly 50-year career as an archaeologist, one is hard-pressed to find a Texas mission, presidio, rancho, or settlement that Dr. Gilmore did not visit, research, excavate, or write about. Among her most important projects were the missions and presidio of San Xavier in present-day Milam County. While researching the site, Dr. Gilmore became...
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City of Today, City of the Past: Permanencies of the Acequias’ Cultural Landscape in the Urban Pattern of San Antonio, Texas (2017)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
In the Southwest of United States, San Antonio, Texas is a urban center of high cultural significance characterized by a ‘historic urban landscape’, whose morphology was generated by Spanish colonial exploitation patterns, such as the 18th century agricultural irrigation system of ‘acequias’ developed along the San Antonio river. This study demonstrates how contemporary urban form can be interpreted as a palimpsest, with material memory embedded in the city, it develops mapping visualization...
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Investigating Spanish Colonial Features Using GPR in Urban Settings (2017)
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Archaeologists at Raba Kistner Environmental, Inc. (RKEI) have been utilizing 3-D ground penetrating radar (GPR) surveys to rediscover Spanish Colonial features such as acequias and foundations in San Antonio, Texas. Many Spanish Colonial sites in San Antonio are located in urban settings and are often covered by roads, parking lots, and sidewalks. Use of 3-D GPR, archival research, and, in some cases, subsurface testing, has allowed us to determine under what geomorphological and burial...
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It Always Comes Back to Identity: Materiality and Presidio Soldier Identity During the 1720-1726 Occupation of Presidio La Bahia (41VT4), Victoria County, Texas (2017)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
Even as archaeologists continue improving the identification of Spanish colonial sites in Texas, consideration of the archaeological implications of the mix of regional and social identities that made up the settlers sent to populate these sites remains limited. Consequently, most research focuses on the presumed cultural provenance of artifact manufacture – European/Mexican/Chinese/Indigenous - to interpret colonial period sites and the material aspects of emerging frontier identities. While...
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Kathleen Gilmore and the Archaeological Investigations of La Salle’s Fort St. Louis in Texas (2017)
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Archaeological investigations at La Salle’s 1685-89 Fort St. Louis in Texas (41VT4) were conducted in 1950 by the Texas Memorial Museum and again in 1999-2002 by the Texas Historical Commission. Kathleen Gilmore analyzed the artifacts from the 1950 excavations and identified the site as the location of the French colony of Fort St. Louis. The 1999-2002 further confirmed this assessment and recovered much information about a Spanish presidio built over the French settlement. Kathleen was a...
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Neutral Ground and Contraband: Trade and Identity on the Frontier (2017)
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Béxar’s location on the frontier coupled with stifling colonial economic policies prompted Tejanos to look to the east for economic opportunities and initiated an active contraband market during the colonial period that became a robust import economy during the Mexican period. While many have focused on the implications of the relationships created through these frontier markets, there has been less of an effort to examine the goods that formed the basis of this trade and the roles that the...
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Recent Archaeological Investigations at Mission San Juan Capistrano, Texas: Indigenous Identity in Spanish Colonial and Modern Times. (2017)
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This paper will discuss the results of the archaeological investigations that were conducted as part of the establishment of a platted reburial area at Mission San Juan. The discovery of human remains during the stabilization and restoration of the Mission San Juan church led to a creative partnership between the Archdiocese of San Antonio and the National Park Service to provide a respectful reburial area that complied with the Texas Health and Safety Code, and did not compromise the integrity...
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Revisiting "Mission Impossible" and the other Zacatecan Missions of East Texas and West Louisiana (2017)
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This presentation will give updates on the following 18th century Zacatecan Missions: Guadalupe, Dolores, and San Miguel. Mission Guadalupe has not been found--some clues to its location will be discussed. Kathleen Gilmore called Mission Dolores, "Mission Impossible," because she had difficulity locating it in the early 1970s. James Corbin of Stephen F. Austin State University (SFA) did eventually locate the site and conducted the major excavations in the mid-1970s and 1980s. A...