Sketch of Mission San Diego, by Lieutenant Wilkinson for the War Department, 1853

Photograph of a sketch of Mission San Diego, by Lieutenant Wilkinson for the War Department, 1853. The mission, at a distance, features a bell tower (left), walls with multi-curved parapets, and a long arcade (right). Smaller buildings are situated nearby the mission. A woman stands near clotheslines(?) (foreground).; "Mission San Diego is the oldest mission in California, and the first link in the 'chain' of missions that stretches 650 miles along the El Camino Real or King's Highway. On Presidio Hill there stands a large cross on which the following words are written: 'Here Father Serra first raised the cross. Here began the first mission, here the first town, San Diego, July 16, 1769.'" -- unknown author