Description
A hand-colored aquatint from Prince Maximilian of Wieds Travels in the interior of North America (1843-1844) depicts a collection of skulls that was part of an offering being made by Mandan Indians. Maximilian organized an 1832-1834 expedition to the West; during the trip, the group encountered members of the Mandan Indian tribe. The prince, a naturalist and ruler of the small state of Neuwied, Prussia (currently part of Germany), followed much the same route along the Missouri River that Lewis and Clark had used in 1804-1806. The prince brought Swiss-born artist Karl Bodmer on the expedition, and Bodmer created a series of watercolor paintings illustrating their travels. (Lewis and Clark did not have an artist accompany their expedition, which was a major ommission.) Bodmers paintings were the basis for the colored plates used in this English-language edition of Travels in the Interior of North America. The plates were bound in a separate atlas to accompany the princes journals. Citation: Travels in the interior of North America, A 1843 .W5 Atlas. Tracy W. McGregor Library of American History, Special Collections, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Va.
