Journey to Inner North America from 1832 to 1834

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Title page of volume 1 of Journey to Inner North America from 1832 to 1834.

Journey to the inner North America in the years 1832 to 1834 (English version: Maximilian Prince of Wied's Travels in the Interior of North America, during the years 1832–1834 , French version: Voyage dans l'interieur de L'Amérique du Nord exécuté pendant les années 1832, 1833 et 1834 ) is a multi-volume work by the German ethnologist and naturalist Maximilian zu Wied-Neuwied , which was published successively in the three languages ​​German, English and French. The work describes the results of Maximilian zu Wied-Neuwied's ethnographic journey through North America from 1832 to 1834 and was designed with illustrations by the Swiss painter Karl Bodmer . The work Travels in the Interior of North America from 1832 to 1834 was an important documentation of the Indian population of the United States .

Maximilian zu Wied-Neuwied's journey to North America between 1832 and 1834

The travel route from Maximilian to Wied-Neuwied in the years 1832 to 1834 in North America is marked in red, orange marks the boundaries.

The aim of this research trip was to observe the flora and fauna of North America and to meet the Indian tribes who lived west of the Missouri at the time and came to the forts on the banks of the Missouri to trade in fur , etc. a. with the American Fur Company . Maximilian zu Wied-Neuwied therefore engaged the draftsman Karl Bodmer as a travel companion in order to document the country and people as well as flora and fauna with the greatest possible accuracy in the picture, especially the living environment of the Indian population in North America, before their unique culture was lost forever. On May 7, 1832, the two of them left the castle in Neuwied with the court hunter and taxidermist David Dreidoppel and on May 17, they traveled from Hellevoetsluis near Rotterdam by American ship to Boston , where they arrived on Independence Day , July 4th Country went. They traveled u. a. along the Ohio River through Pennsylvania and Indiana , finally up the Missouri River via St. Louis in 1833 . They traveled the "Wild West" until the end of the year and wintered in Fort Clark; In the spring of 1834 they made their way back east with their collected animal and plant samples and a few hundred drawings, embarked in New York for Le Havre and reached Europe again in August 1834.

The work "Journey to Inner North America from 1832 to 1834"

Between 1837 and 1842 Jakob Hölscher published the German-language book project Journey to Inner North America in Koblenz from 1832 to 1834 as a two-volume work with a picture atlas in individual deliveries. The travel descriptions comprise a total of 1340 text pages into which 52 small woodcuts are inserted. The text by Maximilian zu Wied-Neuwied contains, in the order of his diary entries, not only travel descriptions and reports about the Indian peoples, but also notes about the flora and fauna of North America and a description of the industrialized eastern states of the USA. The separate two-volume illustrated atlas consists of 81 illustrations based on Karl Bodmer's drawings and a map; it was offered in five different versions, which contained different paper qualities and either uncolored black and white images or colored color images. Because of these elaborate illustrations, the work is considered a milestone in the history of book printing in the 19th century .

The printed text by Maximilian zu Wied-Neuwied comprises around 300,000 words, while the manuscript contained around 500,000 words. The manuscript was therefore greatly shortened before publication, for example to describe drinking bouts, to depict the sexual habits of the Indian tribes visited and to include some unflattering remarks about the white traders on the Missouri. A typical example of Wied's descriptions can be found in Chapter 21 in Volume 2; there the author describes the original river landscape of the Missouri and its wildlife in 1833. This river trip in untouched nature is presented as a unique experience.

Mató-Tópe, chief of the Mandan.

Karl Bodmer brought more than 400 sketches and watercolors of Indians, plants, animals and landscapes back to Germany from the trip. Prince Maximilian zu Wied-Neuwied chose from the numerous watercolors those that he wanted to include in his book and asked Karl Bodmer to supervise the production of the engravings required for printing from these pictures himself. Bodmer therefore supervised 20 renowned engravers in Paris, Zurich and London, who produced 63 steel and 18 copper plates, which exactly reproduced his watercolors. The engravers used pantographs to precisely enlarge the templates and their proportions. Of the 81 plates, 48 ​​were produced as large-format picture panels ( called tableau ) and 33 smaller as vignettes. After printing, Bodmer also instructed the artists to color the panels and vignettes in accordance with his instructions. He therefore constantly traveled back and forth between the cities of Paris, Zurich and London to ensure the exact execution of the prints and their colored versions.

On November 10, 1837, the first delivery of the German edition was offered in five different versions. The prices for each of the 20 deliveries ranged between 3 thalers, 5 silver groschen and 10 thalers, depending on the type of paper and the number of colored engravings. This resulted in prices for the entire German work in the amount of 60–200 thalers. For comparison: a skilled worker in Koblenz earned 200 thalers for a whole year.

The Wabash River at New Harmony 1832–1833. Excerpt from: “Cutoff River Arm des Wabash” by Karl Bodmer

The list of subscribers lists 215 people and institutions who ordered a total of 277 copies, 160 of which were in the simplest version without coloring. It turned out that further buyers of the work were very difficult to gain. Tensions arose between Karl Bodmer and Maximilian zu Wied-Neuwied, as Bodmer had contractually agreed to take over responsibility for sales in France and England.

The French first edition appeared in 1840–1843, the English first edition followed in 1843–1844. The economic depression of 1846 and the revolution of 1848 dampened demand everywhere and a financial debacle loomed. In 1847 Karl Bodmer renounced all of his rights to the original records and transferred the responsibility for marketing to Prince Maximilian zu Wied-Neuwied and his family. However, he did not hand the plates over to the Prussian embassy in Paris until 1856, where they were stored until 1873 because of the Franco-Prussian War .

Collection at the Joslyn Art Museum

Bodmer's works and printing plates, which he had to give Maximilian zu Wied-Neuwied, were kept in Neuwied Castle and were forgotten. Stanley Pargellis from the Newberry Library and the German scientist Joseph Röder ensured their rediscovery. A traveling exhibition brought 118 watercolors to America from 1953 to 1955 and made the watercolors known there.

Maximilian zu Wied-Neuwied

In 1959, the art dealer M. Knoedler & Company from New York acquired all of the archival materials and Karl Bodmer's works of art and printing plates from Friedrich Wilhelm Fürst zu Wied from Friedrich Wilhelm Fürst zu Wied and exhibited them in the Joslyn Art Museum in Omaha (Nebraska). The following year, the Omaha-based Northern Gas Company bought the collection for the Inner North Foundation and gave it to the Joslyn Art Museum, initially as a loan and in 1986 as a gift.

Since then, the museum's holdings have included 386 drawings and watercolors by Karl Bodmer, the diaries and travel correspondence from Maximilian zu Wied-Neuwied, as well as other documents such as newspaper clippings, invoices, invitations and maps. The diaries of Maximilian zu Wied-Neuwied have been published by the museum in three volumes in English translation in the scientifically edited work The North American Journals of Prince Maximilian of Wied since 2008 .

In 1989 the Joslyn Art Museum published a hand-colored and limited edition of 125 copies of the Illustrated Atlas of the Journey to Inner North America 1832–1834 , which was produced with the original printing plates. The museum and the University of Nebraska Press have published drawings and watercolors from the museum's holdings in various book publications . In 1984 the book Karl Bodmer's America was published with 359 reproductions of drawings and watercolors that Karl Bodmer had made during his trip to America . According to Hans Peter Treichler , the original watercolors are artistically superior to the later engraved illustrations in terms of their spontaneity, but also in terms of their coloring and lines.

Karl Bodmer's illustrations of North America come in different colors because they were colored by hand. You can now find them not only in the museums mentioned, but also in The Whitney Gallery of Western Art in the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in the city of Cody (Wyoming, USA) and in several other predominantly American museums. Many of his works are offered through the art trade.

Holdings in European libraries and museums

Karl Bodmer 1877

Belgium

  • Brussels: Bibliothèque royale de la Belgique (French edition)

Germany

  • Berlin: Ethnological Museum (bound German edition without coloring)
  • Berlin: State Library (bound German edition without coloring)
  • Karlsruhe: Badische Landesbibliothek (bound German edition without coloring)
  • Leipzig: Private Collection (Tableau 23)
  • Munich: Bayerische Staatsbibliothek (bound German edition without coloring),
  • Munich: State Museum of Ethnology (hand-colored tableaus of the German edition, unbound)
  • Offenbach: German Leather Museum (various tableaus)
  • Stuttgart: Lindenmuseum (numerous tableaus and vignettes)

England

  • Cambridge: University Library (bound German edition without coloring)
  • London: British Library (bound German edition without coloring, bound hand-colored French edition, numerous tableaus and vignettes from the work North America in pictures without coloring)
  • London: Museum of Mankind (Bound, hand-colored English edition without tableaus 1 and 5 and vignettes XIX and XXIX.)
  • London: Natural History Museum (bound German edition with and without hand coloring)
  • Oxford: Bodleian Library of the University (bound French edition without coloring)

France

  • Paris: Bibliothèque nationale de France (bound German edition, two bound French editions)

Austria

  • Vienna: Albertina (bound German edition)

Switzerland

  • Zurich: NONAM, North America Native Museum - Native American and Inuit cultures (numerous tableaus and vignettes, some hand-colored). Literature: North America Native Museum Zurich: Karl Bodmer. A Swiss Artist in America 1809-1893. A Swiss artist in America. Scheidegger & Spiess, Zurich 2009. ISBN 978-3-85881-236-0 (Text: German and English. With images of all tableaus and vignettes from NONAM, North America Native Museum - Indian and Inuit cultures in Zurich.).

literature

Primary literature

German first editions
  • Maximilian zu Wied-Neuwied: Journey to Inner North America from 1832 to 1834 , 2 volumes of text and 1 picture atlas with illustrations by Karl Bodmer, J. Hölscher, Koblenz 1839–1841.
  • Maximilian zu Wied-Neuwied: North America in Pictures , 1846. A second edition was started in 1851, but probably not completed. The work contains selected pictures from the picture atlas with explanations by Maximilian zu Wied-Neuwied.
  • Maximilian zu Wied-Neuwied: Directory of the mammals observed on my trip to North America . Berlin, 1862.
  • Maximilian zu Wied-Neuwied: Directory of the reptiles that were observed on a trip in northern America . Nova Acta Academiae Caesareae Leopoldinae Nat. Cur. 32, I, 8, E..Blochmann & Sohn, Dresden 1865 (With 7 hand-colored illustrations by Karl Bodmer of turtles and two salamanders. Also published separately: Frommann, Jena.)
French first edition
  • Maximilian zu Wied-Neuwied: Voyage dans l'interieur de L'Amérique du Nord exécuté pendant les années 1832, 1833 et 1834 . Arthus-Bertrand, Paris 1840–1843.
English first edition
  • Maximilian zu Wied-Neuwied: Maximilian Prince of Wied's Travels in the Interior of North America, during the years 1832–1834 ; Translation by H. Evans Lloyd; Achermann & Comp., London 1843-1844. (Excerpts from it appeared in 1906 as a photomechanical facsimile with halftone images in Early Western Travels, 1748–1848 , Volumes 22–25, by Reuben Gold Thwaites, Arthur H. Clark Company, Cleveland-Ohio. New edition: Reuben Gold Thwaites: Early Western Travels, 1748 -1846 . AMS Press, New York 1966.)
Reprints of Karl Bodmer's original plates
  • Leipziger Edition : Edition of uncolored prints from the original plates of the picture atlas published by Verlag Schmidt and Guenther, Leipzig 1921–1922, under the series title Reprints of Rare Americana .
  • Alecto Historical Editions : Limited Edition Prints . London 1989-1993. Hand-colored and limited to 125 copies new edition of the tableaus and vignettes using the original printing plates by Karl Bodmer under the name Bodmers America . The coloring deviates from the restrained coloring of the originals, which Karl Bodmer authorized with his blind stamp , and is determined by a stronger color.
Hand-colored prints from new image plates
  • Hand- colored edition limited to 50 copies for "Original Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition" (13 volumes), published by Reuben Gold Thwaites, Dodd, Mead & Company, New York 1904–1905.
  • Maximilian zu Wied-Neuwied: Directory of the reptiles that were observed on a trip in northern America . Bibliomania! , Salt Lake City approx. 2006, ISBN 1-932871-04-7 , ISBN 1-932871-03-9 .
Photomechanical reprints
  • Indians: Facsimiles to Maximilian zu Wied-Neuwied: Journey to Inner North America 1832–1834 . Unchanged photomechanical reprint of two volumes of text, vignettes and plates. Central antiquariat Leipzig 1968.
  • Maximilian Prinz zu Wied: Journey to the Inner North America from 1832 to 1834 . Reprint with two text volumes and a plate and vignette volume. Fines Mundi Verlag, Saarbrücken 2015 (full edition)
  • Maximilian zu Wied-Neuwied: Journey into the inner North America 1832–1834 . Reprint with two text volumes, vignette tape and blackboard folder. Verlag L. Borowsky, Munich 1979 (slightly abbreviated text, vignettes and tables in black and white).
  • Walter Hansen: The journey of Prince Wied to the Indians . Verlag W. Ludwig, Pfaffenhofen-Ilm 1977 (shortened to a continuous and legible text version with black and white photographs)
  • Maximilian zu Wied-Neuwied: Journey into the inner North America 1832–1834 . Reprint of the tableaus and vignettes in good color print quality with very shortened text, inexpensive. Taschen, Cologne 2001.
  • Maximilian zu Wied-Neuwied: Directory of the reptiles that were observed on a trip in northern America . Bibliomania! , Salt Lake City approx. 2006. ISBN 1-932871-04-7 (bound), ISBN 1-932871-03-9 (unbound).
  • Reuben Gold Thwaites: Early Western Travels, 1748-1846 . AMS Press, New York 1966.
American first editions of the Sketches and Watercolors
Collection at the Joslyn Art Museum
  • David C. Hunt, William J. Orr, WH Goetzmann (Eds.): Karl Bodmer's America. With a biography by William J. Orr: Karl Bodmer. The Artist's Life. and the first publication of Bodmer's American sketches and watercolors in the Joslyn Art Museum in top quality. Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha Ne 1984, ISBN 0-8032-1185-6 .
  • John C. Ewers: Views of vanishing frontier. Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha Ne 1984, 1985, ISBN 0-936364-12-2 .
  • Marsha V. Gallagher: Karl Bodmer's eastern views. Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha Ne 1996, ISBN 0-936364-26-2 .
Karl Bodmer's North American Prints
Collection at the Joslyn Art Museum
  • Brandon K. Ruud (Ed.): Karl Bodmer's North American Prints. Illustrations of prints and essays by Ron Tyler and Brandon K. Ruud. Foreword by J. Brooks Joyner. Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, Nebraska in association with the University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln and London, 2004. ISBN 0-8032-1326-3 .
Collection in the Newberry Library Bodmer Collection in Chicago
  • W. Raymond Wood, Joseph C. Porter, David C. Hunt: Karl Bodmer's studio art. The Newberry Library Bodmer Collection. University of Illinois Press, Urbana / Chicago 2002, ISBN 0-252-02756-6 .
Travel diaries of Maximilian zu Wied-Neuwied in English translation
The Berlin and Stuttgart North America Collection by Maximilian zu Wied-Neuwied
  • North America Native Museum Zurich: Karl Bodmer. A Swiss Artist in America 1809-1893. A Swiss artist in America. Scheidegger & Spiess, Zurich 2009. ISBN 978-3-85881-236-0 (Text: German and English. With a bibliography and images of all tableaus and vignettes from the NONAM, North America Native Museum - Indian and Inuit cultures in Zurich.) .

Secondary literature

Analysis of the work Journey into Inner North America from 1832 to 1834
  • Michael G. Noll: Mosaic of a travelogue. In: Heimat-Jahrbuch 2002 of the district Neuwied. Published by the Neuwied district, pages 193–201.
Journey to the interior of North America 176 years after Karl Bodmers and Maximilian zu Wied-Neuwied's journey

176 years after Karl Bodmer and Maximilian zu Wied-Neuwied's journey, Ulrich and Elke Schmotz took their route from Boston to Fort McKenzie exactly to the day. 176 years after them, you were at the same locations on the same days as Karl Bodmer painted his watercolors and Maximilian zu Wied-Neuwied recorded his diary entries:

  • Ulrich Schmotz: Dead End. Journey to the interior of North America. traveldiary.de Reiseliteratur-Verlag, Hamburg 2013. ISBN 978-3-944365-22-0 .

Web links

Commons : Karl Bodmer  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files
Commons : Maximilian zu Wied-Neuwied  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Information on David Dreidoppel .
  2. ↑ Detailed information on the new edition of the Alecto Historical Editions Print 1-41 (pdf) ( Memento of July 24, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) and Print 42-82 (pdf) ( Memento of July 25, 2008 in the Internet Archive ).
  3. ↑ The handwritten German original version of Maximilian zu Wied-Neuwied's travel diaries is owned by the Joslyn Art Museum and has not yet been published in German (as of September 2013).