Swiss artist Karl Bodmer accompanied Prince Maximilian into the Great Plains of what is now known as the United States in the 1830s. Although many Europeans’ journeys preceded theirs, it was the wide circulation of Bodmer’s resulting drawings and paintings as prints accompanying Maximilian’s book about his journey that created a long-lasting mythical image of America. Bodmer’s renderings provided the first glimpses for Europeans and eastern Americans of the land, animals, and peoples living in America. They created romantic and picturesque perceptions of Native peoples living in a country filled with dramatic landscapes and abundant wildlife.