Charnay, Desire
French (1828-1915)

TITLE ON OBJECT: Tiger's bas-relief on a portion of Ball court of Chichen-Itza
ALBUM TITLE: Untitled album of photographs, Paris, ca. 1863

ca. 1857-1861
albumen print
34.3 x 43.2 cm.
Gift of Eastman Kodak Company: ex-collection Gabriel Cromer
GEH NEG: 26671
73:0199:0002

NON-GEH NUMBER: 421404

BIBLIOGRAPHIC REFERENCE: Mulligan, Therese & Wooters, David. --Photography from 1839 to today: George Eastman House, Rochester, NY.-- Cologne: Taschen, 1999. p. 193.//

INSCRIPTION: mat recto-(handwritten in pencil) "Tiger's Bas-Relief on portion of Ball-court at Chichen-Itza" "421404" "(See Kelemen, 81.40a)"

NOTES: Catalogued 1/98, DZ. "Claude-Joseph Le Désiré Charnay (1828-1915) was a well known archeologist, specializing in pre-Columbian cultures. He helped to popularize archeology and anthropology through his many articles and novels related to his experiences in Mexico and around the world. Charnay used photography as a recording tool in the same way he used papier-maché to make molds of the bas-relief carvings. The photographs in the GEH album were made during Charnay's first expedition to Mexico (1857-1861). They are among the first photographs made of these pre-Columbian religious buildings and the earliest use of photography for archeological purposes. Though all but one of the photographs in the album were published by Charnay in 1863 in the 'Atlas' of --Cités et Ruines américaines: Mitla, Palenque, Izamal, Chichén-Itza ...-- this album is unique. These photographs have been unmounted from a previous board and reassembled to make this album." [Sabrina Esmeraldo - GEH, 1994]

SUBJECT: architecture, ruins