Evening Bivouac on the Missouri

Description

Another version of an evening's bivouac on the Missouri was executed following Bodmer's return to Europe. This was reproduced as Vignette XXIII under the title "Encampment of Travelers on the Missouri" in the picture atlas that illustrated the publications of Prince Maximilian's account of his rtavels in 1839–43. The travelers arrived at Fort Clark above present-day Bismarck, North Dakota, on November 8, according to Maximilian's journal entry for that day. Here they spent the winter months and departed again downriver for St. Louis the following April. While at Fort Clark both Maximilian and Bodmer made extensive studies of the indigenous Indian tribes, which within the next four years were decimated by a smallpox epidemic.