New Mexico on the Mississippi

Description

Bodmer's watercolor of the village of New Mexico carries conflicting notations on the reverse. One indicates that it was done on January 12 and the other on January 6 at twelve o'clock. Maximilian stated in his journal that Bodmer reached New Mexico on January 12 and gave its location as "near Memphis." At the same time he mentioned that it was near or opposite the mouth of the Arkansas River. According to a map of the Mississippi Valley published by H. S. Tanner at Philadelphia in 18321 New Mexico was located above or north of Vicksburg, Mississippi, about midway between Memphis, Tennessee, and Natchez, Mississippi, the next mentioned stop in Maximilian's account of Bodmer's travels downriver. Bodmer was in New Orleans between January 12 and 22, so the date of his brief stop at the settlement of New Mexico remains uncertain.