Thayer Expedition was a 1865 collecting expedition financed by Boston banker Nathaniel Thayer and led by Museum of Comparative Zoology founder and director Louis Agassiz. The members included Louis Agassiz, his wife Elizabeth, Jacques Burkhardt (Agassiz's personal artist) and 11 assistants. They departed New York City for Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on 1 April 1865 and undertook a 15-month expedition to investigate the distribution of Brazil's freshwater fish species. Ultimately, 34,000 specimens in 6,657 lots were catalogued. Jacques Burkhardt created nearly 2,000 watercolor drawings of fish and their habitats. Burkhardt, ill before the journey, suffered during his stay in the Amazon and died within ten months of returning to Cambridge.
Thayer Expedition sailed to Brazil on the maiden voyage of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company's SS Colorado. Launched 21 May 1864, the SS Colorado was sailing by way of Cape Horn for San Francisco. Beginning in the summer of 1865, the SS Colorado operated between San Francisco and Panama City till June 1869, with the occasional voyages to China. She was sold in 1878 and scrapped in 1879. - AsNotedIn
| Y/M/D | Description | Place |
|---|---|---|
| 1865/04/01 | Thayer Expedition departs from New York City on the SS Colorado. |
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