1791 - Mission Nuestra Senora Dolorisma de la Soledad

Rose Campbell

From a series of drawings titled "Mission Studies" Campbell executed for the Index of American Design, a division of the Federal Art Project, overseen by Holger Cahill of the Works Progress Administration. Running from 1935 to 1942, the Index was created to catalogue American folk and decorative arts from the colonial period through 1900. It was divided into six regions of the United States: the West Coast, the Rocky Mountains, the Midwest, the South, New England, and New York, and included over 18,200 watercolors and drawings by around 400 artists, covering a wide array of the objects from barrels and tin lanterns to textiles and carousel horses.

The project was so immense that its original purpose - to be published as a series of portfolios and disseminated throghout the U.S. - was no longer feasible when the U.S. became entrenched in the Second World War. Instead, Cahill had the works formally deposited at the new National Gallery of Art (NGA). These works can now be viewed online.

While these drawings do not appear online, several other works of hers can be viewed throughout the Index. At the time, she signed her works Rose Campbell-Gerke, and it's assumed she was married then (though later works would only show "Campbell" in the signature).

Mission Nuestra Señora de la Soledad, commonly known as Mission Soledad, is a Spanish mission located in Soledad, California. The mission was founded by the Franciscan order on October 9, 1791, alledgedly to convert the Native Americans living in the area to Catholicism.