PRINCE MAXIMILIAN, KARL BODMER, AND THE GEOLOGY OF THE GREAT PLAINS, 1833-34

Prince Maximilian zu Wied (1782-1867), a German naturalist and ethnographer, visited North America for the purpose of studying its natural environments and native peoples in 1832-34. Accompanying the prince was the young Swiss artist Karl Bodmer (1809-93), charged with creating a visual record of the expedition. Maximilian, influenced by scholars and scientific travelers such as Johann Friedrich Blumenbach and Alexander von Humboldt, believed that the study of natural environments in which American Indians lived was a necessary component of any comprehensive understanding of Native American cultures. In 1833-34, Maximilian and Bodmer traveled along the Missouri River from St. Louis to what is now Montana following the route taken by Lewis and Clark and the Corps of Discovery (1804-06). The quality and detail of Maximilian's geological observations and the watercolor prints on paper made by Bodmer of many of the geological features from Nebraska to Montana are remarkable. Many geological features described by Maximilian along certain reaches of the Missouri River were also noted earlier by Lewis and Clark, but Cretaceous strata deformed along earthquake faults starting about 50 miles upstream from the mouth of the Musselshell River in Montana were not remarked upon by either Lewis or Clark. Some of the faults and folds were excellently depicted in Bodmer's watercolor prints.