Robert Göppert (1800-1884) was a botanist and palæontologist. First studying medicine at Breslau and Berlin, he was professor of botany in the university at the former place (1831-39). In 1852 he was chosen director of the botanical gardens at Breslau, where he remained until his death.—Ed.
[8] Achille Valenciennes (1794-1864) was a French zoölogist, a friend and fellow-worker with Cuvier, and director of the Paris zoölogical museum.
Arend Friedrich August Wiegmann (1802-41) was for a time professor of zoölogy at Berlin. He founded (1835) Archivs fur Naturgeschichte.—Ed.
[9] Sir William Jackson Hooker (1785-1865) was early devoted to the study of natural history, making scientific journeys to Scotland in 1806 and to Iceland in 1809. Later (1814), Hooker prosecuted a nine months' botanical tour on the continent of Europe. The following year he married and settled on his estate where he commenced an herbarium; from 1820 to 1841 he was regius professor of botany at Glasgow, being in 1836 knighted for eminent service to science. From 1841 till his death he was director of Kew Gardens, London. Hooker's interest in American scientific development was marked, and he dispatched many pupils on botanical tours to unknown parts of the new continent.—Ed.
[10] Reprinted in our volume xxiv.—Ed.
[11] George Catlin was born in Wilkesbarre, Pennsylvania, in 1796, of a New England family; his mother was a woman of artistic tastes, and had lived on the Indian border. Early in his career, Catlin heard much of the traditions of the aborigines, and thus was unconsciously prepared for his later life work. In 1817 he was sent to study law at Litchfield; returning to Pennsylvania two years later, he practiced in the rural districts until 1823, when he abandoned the law, and going to Philadelphia became an artist. For several years he was employed in painting miniatures and other portraits, going as far as Washington and Albany to execute orders. Having met at the former city a deputation of American Indians, Catlin was imbued with a desire to paint the portraits of these vanishing tribesmen, and in 1832 went west with this purpose in view. Eight years were spent in native lodges and fur-trade camps; then, with a wealth of material widely known as Catlin's Collection, he opened a museum—first in the United States (1837-39), then in London (1840-44). In 1845 he took his collection to Paris, where he remained until expelled by the Revolution of 1848. He thereupon re-opened his London museum, with additional material; but in 1852 became involved in debt, and his collection was shipped to the United States, where it remained neglected until 1879, when it was presented to the National Museum at Washington. Meanwhile Catlin visited South and Central America (1852-57), and resided thereafter in Europe, returning to the United States in 1871 only to die the following year at Jersey City. The work here referred to was Letters and Notes on the Manners and Customs of the North American Indians (New York and London, 1841), more commonly cited by the title of later editions, Notes of Eight Years' Travels. In an appendix are several vocabularies of the Mandan, Blackfeet, Arikara, Sioux, and Tuscarora Indians.—Ed.
[12] This was the American Fur Company's steamer "St. Peter's," which carried the annual outfit and supplies to the Missouri River forts. Larpenteur, in charge at Fort Union, says that the vessel arrived June 24, 1837. See Elliott Coues, Forty Years a Fur-Trader on the Upper Missouri (New York, 1898), pp. 131-135.—Ed.
[13] For the Mandan see Bradbury's Travels, in our volume v, pp. 113, 114, note 76. This should be Fort Clark, not Fort Leavenworth—an evident lapsus calami. Fort Clark, named for General William Clark, was an American fur-trade post built among the Mandan in 1831. See post, chapter xiii, for a detailed description.—Ed.
[14] For Fort Union see post, chapter xv.—Ed.
[15] Authorities differ as to the numbers perishing by the scourge of 1837. H. M. Chittenden, History of American Fur-Trade of the Far West (New York, 1902), p. 627, thinks fifteen thousand a large estimate.—Ed.