Exposing the Maya : Early Archaeological Photography in the Americas

A compelling account of the early period of expeditionary archaeology and photography told through the words and works of six pioneers

Exposing the Maya focuses on the works of Désiré Charnay, Alice and Augustus Le Plongeon, Teobert Maler, Alfred Maudslay and Adela Breton, all of whom were masters of their craft and travelled extensively to sites in Mexico and Central America. The over 100 selected images in this volume, together with nearly 40 additional contextual images featuring sketches from travel journals, hand-colored drawings, prints, and maps, are combined with the photographers’ own words found in their published writings, journals and letters to provide insight into their methods, context for their images, and to capture the realities of field work in Mesoamerica.

Accessible and highly illustrated, Exposing the Maya is a wonderful account of this period of expeditionary photography, an age that witnessed the evolution of photographic techniques and brought to life the long-faded murals and decoration of these ruins. This is a compelling story of incredible journeys, and the challenging conditions under which these pioneering photographers produced their images, and how they perceived the remnants of these ancient indigenous cultures in modern-day Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras.

John W. Hessler is the curator of the Jay I. Kislak Collection of the Archaeology and History of the Early Americas at the Library of Congress and a lecturer at the Johns Hopkins University. He is the author of Collecting for a New World: Treasures of the Early Americas and many other books.

Katia Sainson is a professor of French in the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at Towson University. She is the author and translator of The Manuscript Hunter: Brasseur de Bourbourg’s Travels Through Central America and Mexico, 1854–1859.