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THE MUNRAS MEMORIAL
MUSEUM
The Munras Memorial Museum
is located behind the Basilica of Carmel Mission in the small structure located
between the old convent and the Parish Hall. The museum was the gift of Excellentissima
Dona Maria Antonia Field in 1964 to provide a fitting home for her remarkable
collection of family heirlooms. These artifacts are highly
significant as a collection as they came done from the earliest period in
California’s written history.
Lady Field was the
direct descendant of Don Esteban Munras who built the first home to be
constructed outside the walls of the Old Spanish Presidio. Don Esteban opened a
thriving trading house attached to the family home and as a result imported fine
household furnishings and necessities to the earliest settlers in California’s
first Capital- Monterey.
Don Esteban
also was an amateur artist years before the first professional artists arrived
in the state during the period of the Gold Rush.
Father Juan
Commellas of Mission San Miguel engaged Don Esteban to “fresco” and decorate the
interior of Mission San Miguel around 1820 and that interior is still untouched
and in the original state since the time of Munras. His designs reflected the
Neo-Classical tastes of the period and his Reredos (main altar-piece) reflects
knowledge of an artist who had seen the fashionably decorated churches of Mexico
of that era.
 The Munras Family also claimed as a member California’s first Physician, Dr.
Manuel Quixano who resided at the Carmel Mission in a small residence that stood
on the site of the present Downie Museum. Doctor Quixano is also credited
with the first autopsy performed in the state. Some of the artifacts
connected with his medical practice are on display here.
The furniture
display room house furniture from the original Casa Munras in Monterey
and is largely American Federal furniture brought around Cape Horn
from the
Eastern Coast
of the
United States.
There is also some pieces from the Manila Galleon Trade with the Orient
represented and illustrates the lively trade Don Esteban had with the Chinese
workshops in the compounds at Canton, China.
The marble
mantelpiece of early Victorian style with the accompanying gilt-framed mirror
were the first fireplace ensembles brought to California
and once were installed in the main parlor of the old Casa Munras. An
interesting collection of clothing, amusements, papers and ephemera round out a
look at everyday life outside of the Missions in Early California.
Also
remarkable are the two fine oil portraits flanking the fireplace of Dona
Concepcion Munras McKee and her husband, Dr. William McKee who lost his life in
the American Civil War. The paintings were done by California’s first
professional portrait artist, Leonardo Barbieri who settled in San Francisco at
the beginning of the Gold Rush. His remaining works are a “Whos’ Who” of the
gentry of the young state of California.
by Sir Richard Joseph Menn, G.C. St.G.G.
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