Claude-Joseph Desire Charnay
1828-1915
The French explorer, photographer, and
adventurer, Desire Charnay, was a pioneer in using
photography to show record his discoveries of ancient
civilizations in Mexico. Charnay was born on May 2,
1828 in Fleure-sur-l Arbesle, France. After
studying at the Lyce Charlemagne in Paris,
Charnay traveled to both England
and Germany, before moving to
America in 1850 where he started his teaching career in New Orleans,
Louisiana.
As a result of exposure to books about traveling in the Yucatan by John Lloyd Stephens and Frederick Catherwood, Charnay decided to travel to Mexico. He received a commission from the French Ministry of Education, which allowed him to travel to Mexico, from 1857-1861 and to Madagascar in 1863. In 1875 he traveled to South America, with a special focus on Chile and Argentina. He went to Australia and Java in 1878. He made another voyage to Mexico in 1880-1883.
Charnay collected souvenirs and made photographic records of the Maya ruins he discovered. His personal report on his 1857-1861 expedition, Le Mexique, souvenirs et impressions de voyage, published in 1863, was his most important publication. His official report, in Viollet-le-Ducs publication, Cites et ruines americaine, introduced his photography to archaeological work. Although Charnay discovered wheeled toy dogs in a cemetery on Ixtaccihuatl, his find was not taken seriously during his lifetime.
By publishing books and photographic records of his expeditions, he made great contributions to Mexican archaelogy. He discovered the site of Tula also. Charnay’s final expedition was in 1886. Though the photographic records he produced were not originally taken seriously by intellectuals, they are now greatly valued as a record of prehistoric Mexico because they show a true transitional period of civilization in central Mexico.
Lettres de Fernand Cortes a Charles Quint sur la decouverte du Mexique is the title of Charnay's book which contains his translation of Hernando Cortezs' letters into French. Charnay wrote of his theory about Toltec migrations and his belief that prehistoric Mexicans were of Asiatic origin because of their similarities with Chinese decoration, Malaysian language, Cambodian dress and Japanese architecture. He died in Paris, France on October 24, 1915.
References:
Author Unknown
The Mystery of Quezalcoatl. Electronic document, http://web.archive.org/web/20011006072444/http://www.rjames.com/toltec/cities/tula.asp (2009), accessed
September 22, 1999.
Britannica Micropedia Ready Reference. Chicago. 1998. RO30 En1. Vol.3(Ceara-Deluc). pp.129.
Winters, Christopher
1991 International Dictionary of Anthropologists. Garland Publishing:
http://web.archive.org/web/19990506200954/http://members.spree.com/sip/jmrmex/maya_na.htm
www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia
Written By: Kristine Lang
Edited By: Lillian Dolentz, 2009