On May 17, 1832, Prince Maximilian zu Wied, artist Karl Bodmer, and Maximilian's servant and hunter David Dreidoppel departed from the Dutch port of Helvoet on an American ship bound for the United States. The travelers from Europe entered Boston Harbor on the morning of July 4 to the sound of cannons, fired in honor of the celebration of Independence Day. In his journal, Maximilian wrote that "in the direction of Boston, the snow-white Boston lighthouse was standing on a small rock island...Lots of people from Boston are on pleasure trips, part of them fishing...Mr. Bodmer had already made a drawing of this island, but from a greater distance."

Maximilian's party spent the next several days in and around Boston before traveling to Providence, Rhode Island, en route to New York City, which they reached on July 9. After visiting with American naturalists and painters such as Titian Peale, Samuel Seymour, and Thomas Say on the East Coast, and viewing watercolors by George Catlin and Peter Rindisbacher, Bodmer and the prince continued their journey to St. Louis.