Albert Koch owned the St. Louis Museum until he sold it to William McPherson in 1841. During the later years of the 1830s he began traveling to excavate fossils to display in his museum. The Missourium, like his later Zeuglodon skeletons, was a specimen so great that Koch closed his museum and took it on a tour to Europe where it was eventually sold. This publication of Koch's description of the Missourium was published in St. Louis prior to his departure and accompanied his exhibitions.