From 1832-1834, Prince Maximilian zu Wied, a German aristocrat, and Swiss artist, Karl Bodmer, took a historic journey to the American West. This program retraces their two-year expedition to the upper reaches of the Missouri River (present-day Montana), and evokes the experience using Bodmer’s original paintings, location photography, and real words taken from Prince Maximilian’s diary. Bodmer and Maximilian left an important legacy cherished by today’s Native Americans, preserving an era of American cultural history that soon vanished with the onslaught of technological civilization.

1988 / 58 min. / DVD / Color

© 1988 The Metropolitan Museum of Art