The expedition had as its main supporter the Austrian statesman
Prince Metternich and the expedition was associated with the politically significant marriage of
Dom Pedro of Brazil and
Archduchess Leopoldine of Austria. Overall planning was overseen by Metternich and scientific planning was undertaken by
Carl Franz von Schreibers. The contingent of fourteen naturalists included
Johann Christian Mikan,
Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius,
Giuseppe Raddi,
Heinrich Wilhelm Schott,
Johann Baptist von Spix,
Johann Baptist Emanuel Pohl,
Johann Natterer,
Ferdinand Dominik Sochor (Imperial hunter and a skilled taxidermist) and the artists
Thomas Ender and
Johann Buchberger. A thirteen-room "Brazilian Museum" containing 133,000 objects from the expedition was opened to the public. It was closed in 1836 and the contents integrated with those of the Hof-Naturalienkabinette, now the
Natural History Museum of Vienna. ==References==