Frederick Catherwood (1799–1854)
Born 1799 CE, died 1854 CE.
Frederick Catherwood (27 February 1799 – 27 September 1854) was an English artist, architect and explorer, best remembered for his meticulously detailed drawings of the ruins of the Maya civilization. He explored Mesoamerica in the mid 19th century with writer John Lloyd Stephens. Their books, Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas and Yucatán and Incidents of Travel in Yucatán, were best sellers and introduced to the Western world the civilization of the ancient Maya. In 1837, Catherwood was elected into the National Academy of Design as an Honorary member. Even though Catherwood was not the first Westerner to explore some of the Maya cities, he was the first to accurately illustrate what he saw, unlike his predecessors, such as the Frenchman Jean-Frédéric Waldeck, whose imagination sometimes ran wild. His drawings hold great archaeological value, since some sites have deteriorated since then, as well as artistic significance.
Text from the Wikipedia article Frederick_Catherwood, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.