Bodmer_Publication

In the text Schinz is full of praise for Wied and Bodmer: “On Plates 34 to 37 we
show portraits of Indians from different tribes that we copied from the extraordinarily
beautiful work by the Prince of Wied. The illustrations give us a vivid
impression of the fashion of clothing and the facial features of these peculiar people.
Mister Bodmer, the Prince’s skilled draftsman, made sketches of the people in
situ and captured the national physiognomies accurately, thus bringing the
people’s character to full expression.” 25 Prince Maximilian is referred to in various
contexts as an authority on North and South American Indians, for example, on
the issue of the difference in skin color among the various tribes, or the imputed
similarity between Mongolians and American Indians: “If you behold closely the
Prince’s illustrations, which we have copied faithfully from his marvelous work,
and place a Mongolian face next to them, you will definitely notice that the two are
quite dissimilar.” 26
In 1845 Schinz published a third, extended edition of his work under a new title,
since the book now exclusively covered the Natural History of the Human Species
by Different Races and Tribes. The mammals as such were no longer considered in
the study, instead the book focused in detail on the constitution and functions
of the human body.
The main part of the third edition was dedicated to a detailed study and
description of the human species, divided into six major races. The Americans
were separated into South and North Americans, the latter incorporating the
Mexicans and the “Natives of Real North America.” Under this label Schinz only
includes groups that were mentioned by Prince Maximilian and portrayed by
Bodmer. The Indians of the east and west coasts no longer figure in the third
edition; for Schinz North America is now populated exclusively by Indians of the
Great Plains and the Prairies, with a few representatives from the Woodlands such
as “Saki” (Sauk), “Fox” and “Krihs” (Cree) that Bodmer had depicted earlier on.
From Schinz’s viewpoint, the typical representatives of the American race
were the Indians that Bodmer had portrayed, or, as he preferred to phrase it, the
inhabitants of “real North America.” His text incorporates detailed descriptions
of single tribes, relying completely on descriptions from Prince Maximilian’s journal.
He begins with the Mandan, a group that was described in detail by both
Catlin and Prince Maximilian, but which, until then, was practically unknown in
Europe. The Mandan are followed by descriptions of the “Mönnitaris” (Hidatsa),
the Arikara, the “Saki” (Sauk) and Fox, the Dakota or Sioux, the Omaha and “Punka”
(Ponca), Oto and Missouri Indians, the Crow and Blackfeet, the “Potovatomi”
( Potawatomi), the Osage and “Ayowäs” (Iowa) and, finally, the “Krihs” (Cree).
Since by the time of the issue of the third edition of Natural History the aquatint
prints of Prince Maximilian’s journal had been published in full, 27 Schinz now
had an even larger selection of pictures to choose from. The seven lithographs that
he published after Bodmer’s originals show a total of eleven Indians. It begins with
the Mandan chief Mato-Tope (Plate 38) whom Prince Maximilian and Bodmer became
friends with, followed by the Hidatsa (“Mönnitari”) Pehriska-Ruhpa in his
Dog Society costume (Plate 41), the Dakota warrior Wahktägeli (Plate 43), and the
Dakota Indian woman with the Assiniboin girl (Plate 44). On plate 42 Schinz
presents a new arrangement showing the Sauk (“Saki”) man Massika together with
the Cree woman, which in the Prince’s aquatint atlas are displayed separately on
Plates 3 and 37 respectively. The “Eastern” tribes figure on Plate 7 showing representatives
of the Missouri, Oto and Ponca tribes.
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