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Snags (Sunken Trees on the Missouri)

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Photography by Edward C. Robison III.
Snags (Sunken Trees on the Missouri)
Photography by Edward C. Robison III.

Snags (Sunken Trees on the Missouri)

Artist (Swiss, 1809 - 1893)
Author (1782 - 1867)
Date1832-1834
MediumHand-colored aquatint
Dimensions17 1/4 × 23 1/2 in. (43.8 × 59.7 cm)
ClassificationsPrint
Credit LineCrystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, 2009.26.6
Accession number 2009.26.6
DescriptionDisbound from folio atlas volume of forty-eight plates
On View
Not on view
ProvenanceAuthor; to Frederick Schuchart, NY, 1844; (William Reese Company, New Haven, CT); purchased by Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR, 2009
Label TextAfter arriving in Boston, Massachusetts, on July 4, 1832, Prince Maximilian, artist Karl Bodmer, and the prince’s servant, hunter and taxidermist David Dreidoppel, proceeded to New York City, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh.

From there they traveled by steamboat on the Ohio River to Cincinnati, Ohio; Louisville, Kentucky; and Mt. Vernon, Indiana. In St. Louis, Missouri, they met retired explorer William Clark from the 1804-1806 Lewis and Clark expedition. On April 10, 1833, they departed St. Louis and sailed on the steamboat Yellow-Stone, owned by the American Fur Company, up the Missouri River.

Two weeks later, near present day St. Joseph, Missouri, the crew spent more than an hour navigating carefully through piled masses of driftwood before the steamer was able to continue at regular speed. On April 26, they again encountered snags and sandbars at the mouth of the Nemaha river. Prince Maximilian noted in his journal that "navigation is very dangerous on the Missouri."