Désiré Charnay

Who was Désiré Charnay?

Claude-Joseph Désiré Charnay was a French traveller and archaeologist notable both for his explorations of Mexico and Central America, and for the pioneering use of photography to document his discoveries.

He was born in Fleurie, and studied at the Lycée Charlemagne. In 1850, he became a teacher in New Orleans, Louisiana, and there became acquainted with John Lloyd Stephens's books of travel in Yucatan. He travelled in Mexico, under a commission from the French ministry of education, in 1857-1861; in Madagascar in 1863; in South America, particularly Chile and Argentina, in 1875; and in Java and Australia in 1878. In 1880-1883, he again visited the ruined cities of Mexico. Pierre Lorillard IV of New York City contributed to defray the expense of this expedition, and Charnay named a great ruined city near the Guatemalan boundary line "Ville Lorillard" in his honor; the name did not stick and the site is more commonly known as Yaxchilan. Charnay went to Yucatan in 1886.

The more important of his publications are Le Mexique, souvenirs et impressions de voyage, being his personal report on the expedition of 1857-1861, of which the official report is to be found in Viollet-le-Duc's Cités et ruines américaines: Mitla, Palenque, Izamal, Chichén-Itzá, Uxmal, vol. 19 of Recueil des voyages et des documents; Les Anciennes villes du Nouveau Monde; a romance, Une Princesse indienne avant la conquête; A travers les fonts vierges; and Manuscrit Ramirez: Histoire de l'origine des Indiens qui habitent la Nouvelle Espagne selon leurs traditions.