Frederick Catherwood was an American draughtsman who accompanied the explorer John Lloyd Stephens on his travels in Mexico and Central America. This book contains views of prominent sites encountered by the pair.

They travelled to many prominent Maya sites in southern Mexico, Guatemala and Belize such as Copán, Palenque and Uxmal where they were able to study closely Maya ruins. Stephen's published accounts detail their travels, he states that they had visited 44 sites in total. The findings made during these expeditions helped to reintroduce Maya art to the world, and to confirm that such art and architecture was the product of an advanced Mesoamerican civilisation, not made by European or Asian people in exile as had previously been surmised.