Claude-Joseph-Désiré Charnay (1828–1915).
Ruines du Mexique et types mexicains [Ruins of Mexico and types of Mexicans], 1862–1863.
Albumen prints.
Jay I. Kislak Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (4a–4d)
Heroic Archaeologist
French archaeologist Claude-Joseph-Desiré Charnay and his team carried heavy photographic equipment into jungles and barely cleared terrain to take these images of the ruins at Uxmal, Mitla, and Chichen Itza (now designated one of the “Seven Wonders of the World”) during the first systematic photographic expeditions to Mexico in 1859–1860. Charnay’s work was instrumental in attracting serious scholarly interest in Europe in pre-conquest Mexico, thus setting the stage for later intensive archaeological studies of Mesoamerican civilization.