Categories: Places & Travel Written By: John In 1832, Karl
Bodmer met Prince Alexander Philipp Maximilian, ruler of the
small state of Neuwied, Prussia (now part of Germany). Known as
Prince Maximilian of Wied, or Prince Max, Maximilian was a
German explorer, naturalist and ethnographer searching for a
draftsman to accompany him to North America. He selected
Bodmerfor the expedition to the Great Plains region of the
United States, along the Missouri River. Prince Max had led
another well publicized expedition to South America, and the
North American trip was to bring more notice with the
publication of the 3 volume book from which these pictures were
scanned. Of the many images he made from the trip, 81 were
reproduced as aquatints for the book. Scenes include subjects
from the entire journey, from Boston, through New York and
Pennsylvania, down the Ohio to Cairo, up the Mississippi to St.
Louis, and all the way to the headwaters of the Missouri.
Bodmer’s works from this trip were recognized as among the most