 He gave this collection to the St. Louis Mercantile Library in 1853, where it remains today.He departed France in January, 1849, after Louis Napoléon was inaugurated as President of the Second Republic.After landing in New Orleans, Boernstein passed through St. Louis, Missouri, to the Swiss community of Highland, Illinois, where he practiced as a water-cure physician until offered the editorship of the German-language newspaper "Anzeiger des Westens" ["Western Reporter"] in St. Louis in March, 1850.