Bodmer_Publication

interest to the family. On the occasion of the XIVth International Congress of Americanists
(1904), the Earl of Linden brought the collection to Stuttgart in order for it
to be restored and exhibited on a long-term basis at the ethnographic museum.” 3
In view of the fact that the Earl of Linden strongly advocated that private collections
be kept in museums in order to save them as cultural treasures for posterity,
one may expect that he also called upon Prince of Wied to pass on the pieces to the
museum where, for conservation reasons, they could be cared for much better
than at the castle in Neuwied. It appears that the founder of the Stuttgart museum
was successful in the venture, since in July 1904 the acquisition was listed in the
inventory book as “Gift from Prince Maximilian of Wied.” However, in the annual
report for 1901 – 1904 there is no further mention of the collection. There is only one
reference from 1904 where it says: “His Royal Majesties in the company of Her
Royal Highness, The Heir Princess, and His Serene Highness, The Heir Prince of
Wied, visited the museum.” 4
Object Biography – a Challenge
In his documentation of Prince Maximilian’s North America collection in Stuttgart,
Schulze-Thulin describes eighty-two objects including numerous images
without, however, covering all objects, 5 as for example, the Winnebago “band of
bead work” (Acc. No. 36057) which definitely forms a pair with the “Saki warrior’s
knee band of skunk fur ” (Acc. No. IV B 237) from the Berlin Wied collection. 6
In addition there are two baskets in the Linden-Museum’s collection that, according
to the inventory book, are from Brazil; however, here they are identified as
Choctaw and registered under “North America.” The smaller piece (Acc. No. 36006)
is very similar to the woven “Cherokee basket made of split reed” (Acc. No. IV B 77)
in the Berlin collection. 7
Far more problematic than errors in attribution are the sale and trade of
items from the holdings of the Linden-Museum. In this way the private owner
of the museum, the Württemberg Association of Trade Geography, responded to
the shortage of financial means, which frequently prevented them from purchasing
pieces they were interested in acquiring. Not all objects reported “missing”
were documented, and the whereabouts of individual items from the Wied collection
accessioned in July 1904 are currently unknown. Such is the case for the whip
with an elk horn haft (Acc. No. 35979) supposedly of Shoshone provenance.
The same applies to a Dakota bow (Acc. No. 35983), a “woman’s shirt with beadwork
embroidery ” (Acc. No. 36111) and a “headdress made from red-dyed hair of
the porcupine ” (Acc. No. 36117). There is proof that in 1955 a tobacco pouch decorated
with pony beads (Acc. No. 36118) went to a private collector, and in 1956
Arthur Speyer acquired a gunstock club of the Sauk and Fox (Acc. No. 36982).
How the Mandan leggings (Acc. No. 36112) and the Dakota pipe bowl (Acc. No. 36137)
ended up in the Speyer collection remains a mystery. 8 These are the leggings
that go with the shirt of Mato-Tope which is in the possession of the Linden-
Museum. 9 As such, the leggings (Acc. No. 36110 b), which in the inventory book are
identified as the leggings of Mato-Tope, either did not belong to him, or were not
worn together with the shirt held in the collection. Today the Speyer collection is
in possession of the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Gatineau, Quebec.
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