Born in Frankfurt, Germany, Adolf Hoeffler was the son of a painter, and took lessons from his father as well as at the Dusseldorf Academy. In 1848, he arrived in New Orleans and spent the following years as an itinerant artist, doing portraits and filling his notebooks with sketches and drawings of places he visited.

Traveling up the Mississippi River by steamboat, he reached St. Paul in the summer of 1849, and among his sketches are depictions of St. Paul, Fort Snelling and other landmarks.

In 1853, his sketches, including many more scenes of Minnesota and also of Wisconsin, were published in Harper's New Monthly Magazine. Also appearing were seventeen woodcuts from his drawings.

Source:
Rena Neuman...