Prince Alexander Philipp Maximilian zu Wied-Neuwied, born in 1782 at the end of the European Enlightenment, had become friends with two of its major figures: Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, a major comparative anthropologist under whom he studied biological sciences, and Alexander von Humboldt, who served as Maximilian's mentor.

Prince Max had joined the Prussian army in 1802 during the Napoleonic War, rising to the rank of Major-General.

On retiring from the army in 1815, Wied had led an expedition to southeast Brazil from 1815 to 1817, on his return writing Reise nach Brasilien (1820-21) and Beiträge zur Naturgeschichte von Brasilien (1825-33).

In July 1832, accompanied by a huntsman and taxidermist, David Dreidoppel, and the twenty-three-year-old Swiss painter Karl Bodmer, Weid lands in Boston, intending to embark on a journey up the Missouri River, studying the cultures of tribes such as the Mandan and the Hidatsa as well as the flora and fauna of the area.

The three had encountered hardships and delays caused largely by a cholera epidemic in the eastern states that had swept across the north to Michigan.

It is not until October 8th that the three begin their journey down the Ohio River from Pittsburgh, arriving in Mt. Vernon, Indiana ten days later, then making their way to New Harmony.

Wied’s stay here is “prolonged by serious indisposition, nearly resembling cholera, to a four months’ winter residence.”

When the expedition is complete, Bodmer will return to Germany in 1834 with Prince Maximilian, then travel to Paris, where he will have many scenes from the expedition (eighty-one total) reproduced as aquatints.

The Prince will incorporate these images into his book, which will be published in London in 1839 as Reise in das Innere Nord-Amerikas (Travels in the Interior of North America).