Prince Maximilian zu Wied's great exploration of coastal Brazil in 1815–1817 resulted in important

collections of reptiles, amphibians, birds, and mammals, many of which were new species later
described by Wied himself. The bulk of his collection was purchased for the American Museum of
Natural History in 1869, although many “type specimens” had disappeared earlier. Wied carefully
identified his localities but did not designate type specimens or type localities, which are taxonomic
concepts that were not yet established. Information and manuscript names on a fraction (17 species)
of his Brazilian reptiles and amphibians were transmitted by Wied to Prof. Heinrich Rudolf Schinz at
the University of Zurich. Schinz included these species (credited to their discoverer “Princ. Max.”) in
the second volume of Das Thierreich … (1822). Most are junior objective synonyms of names
published by Wied.

Coperta cărții lui Maximilian Wied

1820 1ed Travels in BRAZIL South America Illustrated Indians

Voyages Wied
 
Maximilian Wied was a 19th-century German explorer known for his
expedition to Brazil in 1815. While on South America, Wied encountered
native Brazilian Indians and illustrated these peoples in his book ‘Travels in
Brazil’. This work was the first work to illustrate Brazilian natives and
covered their habits and customs.
 
This 1820 English edition features the same Karl Bodmer illustrations as in
the original German printing.
 
Item number: #5622
Price: $499
 
WIED, Maximilian
       
Travels in Brazil, in 1815, 1816, and 1817.
 
London: Printed for R. Phillips, 1820. First edition thus.
 
Details:
       Collation: Complete with all pages
o   IV, 112
o   8 engravings (of 9)
  Lacking final engraving
       References: Sabin 47022
       Language: English
       Binding: Leather; tight & secure
       Size: ~8in X 5in (20cm x 13cm)
 
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 https://mypages.valdosta.edu/mgnoll/Prince_Maximilian.htm

Prince Maximilian of Wied (1782-1867)

A German Explorer and Naturalist
by Michael G. Noll, Ph.D. 
 

 
Prince Maximilian of Wied
(Engraving by Heinrich Meyer, ca. 1820-25; reproduction by Manfred Bogner;
courtesy of Roentgen Museum, Neuwied, Germany)
 
Prince Maximilian Alexander Philipp of Wied was a German explorer and naturalist
who traveled through Brazil in 1815-17 and through the United States in 1832-34. He
became best known for his studies of the Northern Plains tribes in the United States,
especially the Mandans and Hidatsas. 
 

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Prince Maximilian was born the eighth of eleven children 1 on September 23, 1782, in
the city of Neuwied, Germany. His parents were Friedrich Carl Count of Wied-
Neuwied (1741-1809) and Louise Wilhelmine Countess of Sayn-Wittgenstein-
Berleburg (1747-1823). The most influential people in Maximilian's career were
Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, the Enlightenment's leading theorist on comparative
anthropology, and Alexander von Humboldt, who became his mentor and friend after
they met in Paris in 1814.2

The City of Neuwied

(Engraving by C.F. Troeger and F. Leizelt, 1784;
courtesy of Roentgen Museum, Neuwied, Germany).
 
(In the same year the countship of Wied was elevated to a principality.
The castle of Neuwied can be found in the upper right corner.)
   
 
Whenever the Prince was free of military service in the Prussian army, he diligently
pursued his scientific studies. He learned his skills as a naturalist mainly on his own,
but he also enrolled at the University of G oettingen in 1811-12 to study under
Blumenbach. In 1815, encouraged by Humboldt,  the Prince led his first major
expedition to Brazil, where he studied the flora and fauna of the Mata Atlantica and
indigenous peoples such as the Botocudo, Puri, and Pataxo. Upon returning to
Germany in 1817, Maximilian devoted himself to the analysis of his Brazilian
experience, which culminated in the two-volume "Journey to Brazil in the Years 1815-
17" (1820-21). 

In the late 1820s Maximilian began preparations for a second major expedition.
Originally he played with the idea of exploring Labrador or the Kirgisian Steppe in
Russia, but by 1830 he had decided to travel to North America. One stated purpose of
this journey was to continue his investigation of the flora and fauna of the Americas,
but he also intended to study the indigenous cultures of North America and compare

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them with those of southeastern Brazil. In May of 1832 Maximilian, accompanied by
the Swiss painter Karl Bodmer, left Europe for the United States, where they arrived in
early July. After a tour of eastern cities they traveled west. Because of a serious illness
resembling cholera, Maximilian was forced to stay the winter of 1832-33 in New
Harmony, Indiana, where he enjoyed the company of fellow naturalists Thomas Say
and Charles Alexandre Lesueur. 

In the spring of 1833 Maximilian finally arrived in St. Louis, where he made
arrangements to travel up the Missouri with boats belonging to the American Fur
Company. After short stops in Forts Pierre, Clark, and Union, the Prince arrived at Fort
McKenzie, the westernmost point of his expedition, in August of 1833. Originally
Maximilian wanted to extend his studies farther upriver into the Rocky Mountains, but
the hostility of the three Blackfeet tribes forced him to reconsider this plan. After about
five weeks of fieldwork around Fort McKenzie, the Prince returned to Fort Clark to
stay for the winter of 1833-34. There he devoted his time to a thorough study of the
Mandans and Hidatsas and to a less complete analysis of the nearby Arikaras. 

In his travel accounts Maximilian routinely described the physical appearance of the
indigenous peoples he encountered, then concentrated on recording their customs,
language, and culture, including one of the most important ceremonies of the Mandans,
the O-kee-pa. Maximilian's visit to the upper Missouri came at a time when the fur
trade increasingly altered the social, political, and cultural characteristics of the
Northern Plains tribes, and he recorded many of these changes, even though he was not
always aware of their significance. His travel writings also reinforced the Romantic
interest in the noble savage, an invented image which had fascinated intellectuals
throughout Europe since the late Renaissance. 

In April of 1834 the Prince journeyed back to the East Coast, then on to Europe in July.
As soon as he returned to Neuwied, Maximilian began the synthesis of his expedition,
which culminated in the publication of the two-volume "Travels in the Interior of
North America" (1839-41). In the years following, and until a few years before his
death on February 3, 1867, in Neuwied, he continued to publish articles on his
American experience. Maximilian's legacy survives in the nomenclature of plants and
animals in both North and South America (for example, the "Maximilian
sunflower" Helianthus maximilianii, the orchid Maxillaria neuwiedii, the Cretaceous
saurian Mosasaurus maximiliani, birds such as "Maximilian's Parrot" (Pionus
maximiliani), reptiles such as "Maximilian's Snake-Necked Turtle" (Hydromedusa
maximilianii), and mammals such as the margay (Felis Wiedii)).

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Prince Maximilian's North American Travel Map

(Prince Maximilian of Wied, 1839-41)
 
  
Ein Prinz Unter Indianern: Die Reisen des Prinz Maximilian zu Wied
 
(A German docudrama by Atlantis Film Berlin about Prince Maximilian of
Wied on Terra X, ZDF)
 
 

 
 
 

5
1
    The common understanding seems to be that Prince Maximilian was the eighth of ten children. However, based
on documents found at the archives of abbey Rommersdorf (near Neuwied) he had an "unnamed brother" who was
stillborn on April 24, 1786.
2
    Considerable discussion exists as to when Prince Maximilian met Alexander von Humboldt for the first time, and
the year 1804 is commonly mentioned. However, in a letter Prince Maximilian wrote to Rudolf Schinz on May 28,
1814, he stated that "... Humboldt and Bonpland now also belong to the number of my acquaintances." 
 
 
 
For further information on Prince Maximilian read:

Noll, Michael G., “Prince Maximilian's Other Worlds.” The Pennsylvania Geographer, 43

(2005): 65-83.

Noll, Michael G., Prince Maximilian's America: The Narrated Landscapes of a German Explorer
and Naturalist (Dissertation, University of Kansas, Copyright 2000)

Roth, Hermann Josef (ed.), "Maximilian Prinz zu Wied: Jaeger, Reisender, Naturforscher", Fauna
und Flora in Rheinland-Pfalz, Beiheft 17 (Landau: Gesellschaft fuer Naturschutz und
Ornithologie Rheinland-Pfalz e.V., 1995).

Schach, Paul, "Maximilian, Prince of Wied (1782-1867): Reconsidered." Great Plains

Quarterly 14 (1994): 5-20.

Wied, Maximilian Prinz zu, Reise in das Innere Nord-America in den Jahren 1832 bis 1834, 2
volumes (Coblenz: Hoelscher, 1839-41).

Witte, Stephen S. and Marsha V. Gallagher, eds. The North American Journals of Pirnce
Maximilian of Wied, volumes 1-3 (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2008, 2010, 2012)

(Click here for more information about Prinz Maximilian zu Wied in German. )

 
Coat of Arms of the Principality of Wied 

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The Castle of Neuwied 
  

  

Monument in Honor of Prince Maximilian of Wied

(Sculpture by Guta von Freydorf-Stephanow, 1987)
 
(Maximilian is carrying a rifle, while Karl Bodmer is holding a sketch book.
Also on this photograph and facing west is the Mandan chief Mató-Tópe.)
 
 

7
    

Gravesite of the Wied family at the historic cemetery in Neuwied

 
(Until the 1870s members of the Wied family were buried in this cemetery. Later the family used their private
cemetery near the castle of Monrepos for burials.
The image to the left shows the grave marker for Johann Friedrich Alexander zu Wied, the first reigning "Prince" of
Wied of the principality from 1784 until 1791.
The image to the right shows the marker for Maximilian's grave, now propped up against the monument of his
ancestor. The exact location of his grave is not known.
Inscribed on the plate are the words: Maximilian, Prinz zu Wied, geb. 23. September 1782, gest. 3. Februar 1867,
Koenigl. Preuβ. General Major, Gelehrter, Forscher u. Mensch.)

Please contact me if you have any questions about Prince Maximilian of Wied: 
Michael G. Noll, Ph.D.
Professor of Geography 
2216 Nevins Hall 
Physics, Astronomy, & Geosciences 
Valdosta State University 

8
 Valdosta, GA  31698 
Phone: (229) 333-7143 
Fax: (229) 219-1201

Web: mypages.valdosta.edu/mgnoll/