Prince Maximilian of Wied

Prince Maximilian zu Wied-Neuwied (1782–1867) was a traveler and naturalist born into a German aristocratic family. After serving in the Army of Prussia, Maximilian undertook his first transatlantic journey, sailing to Brazil in 1815-17. He aimed to follow in the footsteps of his role model, the naturalist Alexander von Humboldt (1764–1859), who had visited the Americas between 1799 and 1804. To assist him, the prince enlisted his gamekeeper David Dreidoppel (1793–1866) as his travel companion. In Brazil, Maximilian developed an interest in the Indigenous Aimoré (or Botocudo) people, and documented their culture in his two-volume work Reise nach Brasilien, published between 1820 and 1821. Dreidoppel was responsible for shipping back cultural belongings, as well as animal and botanical specimens collected during their journey. 

By the early 1830s, Maximilian planned another transatlantic expedition, this time to North America. Accompanied by Dreidoppel and the young artist Karl Bodmer, Maximilian traveled through the United States to the western reaches of the Missouri River and back from July 1832 to August 1834. His notes compiled during this trip became the basis for a new publication, Reise in das innere Nord-America (1839-41), which included eighty-one illustrations designed by Bodmer. The popular account was later translated into French (Voyage dans l’intérieur de l’Amérique du Nord, 1840-43) and English (Travels in the Interior of North America, 1841-43). Despite its inaccuracies and misinterpretations, the travelogue became a major reference work on Great Plains ecology and Native nations for European readers. 

In the following decades, Maximilian allowed select visitors to see his collection of Indigenous cultural belongings from both Brazil and North America at his residence, Neuwied Castle in [give geographic description]. This collection is now housed in the Linden-Museum, Stuttgart, and the Berlin Ethnologisches Museum. Maximilian passed away on February 3, 1867.