Von Friedrichsthal was born in
Uhřice in the
Austrian Empire (present-day
Czech Republic). He was educated in
Vienna at the
Theresian Military Academy and entered Austrian government service, but soon left to pursue scientific travels. He traveled through
Rumelia in the 1830s, publishing his findings in two books:
Reise in die südlichen Theile von Griechenland (
Journey to the Southern Parts of Greece, 1838) and
Serbiens Neuzeit in geschichtlicher, politischer, topographischer, statistischer und naturhistorischer Hinsicht (
Modern Serbia in Historical, Political, Topographical, Statistical, and Natural-Historical Respects, 1840). In 1840, he was posted as first secretary of the Austrian
Legation to
Mexico, where he became interested exploring the ruins of
Maya civilization after reading the writings of
John Lloyd Stephens and
Frederick Catherwood. He discussed his plans with historian
William H. Prescott during a trip to
Boston, and bought a daguerreotype apparatus in New York City. He went to the
Yucatán in mid-1840, and traveled throughout the Yucatán and
Chiapas, becoming the first person to take daguerreotypes of the Mayan ruins, and the first European in the 19th century to visit the ruins of
Chichen Itza. He fell ill during his travels, probably with
malaria, which necessitated his return to Europe in 1841, where he died in Vienna in 1842. This early death prevented him from publishing the results of his Central-American travels, but he had put on an exhibition of twenty-five daguerreotypes in New York, in the British Museum in London and in Paris, for which he was honored by the
Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres. == References ==