Alamo cannon finds new life at Texas A&M University, 190 years after iconic battle
The preservation efforts at the Conservation Research Laboratory ensure historic artifacts will remain accessible for future generations.
A cannon from the 1836 Battle of the Alamo is being preserved at Texas A&M University’s Conservation Research Laboratory. It is one of 16 Alamo cannons the laboratory has worked to preserve for future generations.
At the 190th anniversary of the Battle of the Alamo, Texas A&M University is preserving a rare artifact from the iconic event in Texas history. A 90-pound cannon from the 1836 battle is one of several Alamo cannons in the care of the university’s Conservation Research Laboratory.
The cannon, discovered in 1852 buried in the yard of a property adjacent to the Alamo, was recently donated back to the Alamo and is being restored under the direction of Dr. Christopher Dostal, assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology at Texas A&M and director of the Conservation Research Laboratory. It is the 16th cannon from the Alamo’s collection that Texas A&M has worked to preserve.
Dostal said the preservation process begins with detailed documentation and gentle surface cleaning before the cannon is immersed in a sodium hydroxide solution that helps remove salts embedded in the metal. After rinsing, the artifact will be coated with tannic acid and finished with a layer of microcrystalline wax for long-term protection. This treatment can take anywhere from a few months to several years.
“We gave [the Alamo] a guesstimate as to when they’d be finished, but ultimately what they understand and what we understand is you can’t reason with a cannon,” Dostal said. “You just have to keep going with the treatment until it stops releasing salts.”
Dostal said the preservation of artifacts like the cannon plays an important role in our understanding of history.
“We all know the story of the Alamo, but the actual physical objects that the players of that story used make it real to us,” Dostal said. “We think it’s very important to preserve that material and to have it stable and tangible and able to be connected with for many, many generations past ours. So that’s why we’re doing this.”
The restored cannon will be on display in the Visitor Center and Museum at the Alamo, which is scheduled to open in 2028.
