Paul Wilhelm, Duke of Wurttemberg b. 1797 d. 1860
Scientist and adventurer who traveled extensively throughout the western United States.
He was born the nephew of King Friedrich I of Wurttemberg. King Friedrich recognized the talents and intellectual capabilities of the young Paul Wilhelm and asked Paul Wilhelm’s father if he could take over custody and responsibility for the young boy.
The boy’s father agreed, and by all accounts the king raised him as his own son. At his court, Paul Wilhelm was educated in the sciences, literature, languages, philosophy, diplomacy, law, and ethics. He eventually earned doctorates in philosophy, medicine, and anatomy. Initially, the king intended the young boy to pursue a military career, and in 1822 Paul Wilhelm received the rank of a colonel in command of a calvary unit. Shortly afterward, he decided that he was not suited for a life in the military or royal court and petitioned President James Monroe for permission to travel incognito (for his own protection against robbery or being killed) to the United States. Receiving permission, he went on his first voyage (1822-1824), accompanied only by one attendant, a hunter, and a wood carver. On this trip he traveled from New Orleans up the Mississippi and Ohio rivers, collecting scientific samples and observing frontier society in the United States. In 1827, he married the princess of the house of Turn and Taxi and within a year had his only son Maximilian, but his two new roles did not dissuade him from taking other trips to the United States. On his second trip (1829-1831), he traveled through Mexico, the Rocky Mountains, and the Great Plains and went to the headwaters of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers. The purpose of this trip was to collect organic and geologic specimens. He spent the next seven years organizing this collection and building a museum at Mergentheim. As a result of his renown among the scientific community, he was invited by the khedive of Egypt to join in an expedition along the upper Nile.Paul Wilhelm’s third and longest expedition to North America (1849-1856) was by far his most famous. In pursuit of scientific and social data, he traveled from New Orleans across Mexico to Acapulco, then up the California coast to Sacramento, where he witnessed the gold rush, through Panama and back to New Orleans, up the Mississippi and Illinois rivers, and then west to the Platte and Utah. After spending the winter of 1852 in New Orleans, he went to South America, exploring the Amazon, the Orinoco, the Rio Plata, Patagonia, the Andes, and the Tierra del Fuego archipelago. He finally went north again to visit the Great Lakes region and New York. His final voyage was to Australia, New Zealand, and Tasmania in 1858. As a result of his voyages, he received medals and awards from many of Europe’s scientific and literary societies. Only four months after returning from this trip, while attempting to organize his massive collection, he died. Many of these manuscripts remained undisturbed at the Royal State Library at Stuttgart until they were accidentally discovered in 1928. He once wrote, “The thought of an eventuality that might compel me to give up my predilection for travel and exploration has been the only dark cloud in my life” (Butscher 1942, 224).
Gregory Paul Shealy
See also Travel Literature, German-U.S.
References and Further Reading
Butscher, Louis C. “A Brief Biography of Prince Paul Wilhelm of Wurttemberg (1797-1860).” New Mexico Historical Review 17, no. 3 (July 1942): 181-225.
Liebersohn, Harry. Aristocratic Encounters: European Travelers and North American Indians. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998.