Summary
- Collection ID:
- NAA.PhotoLot.4449
- Creators:
-
Charnay, Désiré, 1828-1915
- Dates:
-
circa 1857
- Languages:
-
- Physical Description:
-
- Repository:
-
Scope and Contents note
Scope and Contents note
Photographs made by Désiré Charnay depicting the Grand Palace at Mitla, the Governor's Palace at Uxmal, a convent at Chichen Itza, and a large stone tablet at Palenque.
Biographical/Historical note
Biographical/Historical note
Claude Joseph Désiré Charnay (1828-1915), a French archeologist and pioneer of expeditionary photography, explored and documented Mexico and Central America. He was commissioned by the French government in 1857 to collect artifacts and document archeological sites in Mexico. Charnay completed three tours between 1858-1860, 1880-1882, and 1886; the latter two trips were funded by New York resident Pierre Lorillard and were largely photographic expeditions. Charnay later went to Madagascar (1863), North America (1867-70), South America (1875), Australia and Oceania (1878), and Central America (1880-83). He was among the first to use photography to record Meso-American archaeological sites, as well as the Indigenous peoples of Mexico whom he encountered.
Administration
Existence and Location of Copies note
Copy negatives in 43,193.
Custodial History note
Probably donated to the Bureau of American Ethnology circa 1948.
Using the Collection
Conditions Governing Access note
The collection is open for research.
Access to the collection requires an appointment.
Conditions Governing Use note
Contact the repository for terms of use.
Preferred Citation note
Photo Lot 4449, Désiré Charnay photographs of Mitla, Uxmal, Chichen Itza, and Palenque, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Location of Other Archival Materials
Location of Other Archival Materials
Casts made by Charnay held in the anthropology collections of the National Museum of Natural History in accessions 042420 and 013211.
Contained in
Contained in
Numbered manuscripts 1850s-1980s (some earlier)
Bibliography
Bibliography
Photographs may have been published in Désiré Charnay Cités et ruines Américaines. Mitla, Palenqué, Izamal, Chichen-Itza, Uxmal. Recueillies et photographiees par D. Charnay. Avec un texte par [E.E.] Viollet-le-Duc, suivi du voyage et des documents de l'auteur. With atlas. (Paris: Gide, 1862-1863).
Keywords
National Anthropological Archives
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