Lewis & Clark - Corps of Discovery Historical Documents, Journals, Books, Maps & Newspapers

Lewis & Clark - Corps of Discovery Historical Documents, Journals, Books, Maps & Newspapers

11,335 pages of material related to the Lewis & Clark Corps of Discovery Expedition of 1804 to 1806.  Material includes text, historical volumes, and images of original documents and maps. The collection features Thomas Jefferson papers & correspondences, transcriptions of the journals of Lewis and Clark and others on the Expedition, books, maps, newspapers and more.

All computer recognizable text, transcriptions, reproduced printed text, and description sheets in the collection are searchable.

In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson was successful in a moving an illustrious foreign diplomacy endeavor through the United States Senate: the purchase of the Louisiana Territory from France. After the Louisiana Purchase Treaty was signed, Jefferson initiated an exploration of the newly purchased land and the territory beyond the "great rock mountains" in the West. The objectives of the mission were the establishment of commercial ties with the indigenous people of the Far West and an increase in the knowledge of the region's geography. Jefferson chose his personal secretary, Meriwether Lewis to lead the expedition. 

Lewis in turn solicited the help of William Clark, whose abilities as a draftsman and frontiersman were stronger than those of Lewis. Lewis so respected Clark, that he made him a co-commanding captain of the Expedition, even though Clark was never recognized as such by the government. President Jefferson approved Lewis' choice of Clark as the co-leader of the planned expedition to the Pacific. The U.S. Army would not reinstate Clark with his former rank of Captain. He received the rank of 2nd Lieutenant of the Corps of Artillerists. Lewis always called Clark by the title of "Captain" and never told the members of the Corps of Discovery to do otherwise.  Together they collected a diverse military Corps of Discovery that would be able to undertake a two-year journey to the great ocean.

Under the command of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, the Corps of Discovery set forth from St. Louis on May 14, 1804. The party originally consisted of twenty-nine men, including Clark's black slave York. In the next twenty-eight months, the Corps of Discovery would travel more than 8,000 miles through unfamiliar terrain inhabited by an array of indigenous peoples. Jefferson hoped that Lewis and Clark would find a water route linking the Columbia and Missouri rivers. This water link would connect the Pacific Ocean with the Mississippi River system, thus giving the new western land access to port markets out of the Gulf of Mexico and to eastern cities along the Ohio River and its minor tributaries. At the time, American and European explorers had only penetrated what would become each end of the Lewis and Clark Trail.

Both captains kept detailed journals that depicted a culturally and geographically diverse Western landscape, that was rich with natural resources. Their descriptions of vast populations of fur-bearing mammals would spur the extension of the American fur trade into the upper reaches of the Missouri River.

The expedition made it as far as the Great Bend of the Missouri by the end of 1804. While camped near the villages of the Mandan and Minnetaree, the Corps enlisted the services of Toussaint Charbonneau and his Shoshone wife Sacagawea. The following year, the expedition journeyed up the Missouri, across the Rocky Mountains, and down the Columbia River to the Pacific Ocean.  When the spring of 1805 brought high water and favorable weather, the Lewis and Clark Expedition set out on the next leg of its journey. They traveled up the Missouri to present-day Three Forks, Montana, wisely choosing to follow the western-most tributary, the Jefferson River. This route delivered the explorers to the doorstep of the Shoshone Indians, who were skilled at traversing the great rock mountains with horses. Once over the Bitterroot Mountains, the Corps of Discovery shaped canoe-like vessels that transported them swiftly downriver to the mouth of the Columbia, where they wintered (1805-1806) at Fort Clatsop, on the present-day Oregon side of the river. At the newly erected Fort Clatsop, the party suffered through a dismal winter. The following year all members of the Corps of Discovery returned along roughly the same route. During the journey only one person, Sergeant Charles Floyd, lost his life, while another, Jean Baptiste Charbonneau, was born to Sacagawea.

With journals in hand, Lewis, Clark, and the other members of the Expedition returned to St. Louis by September 1806 to report their findings to President Jefferson. Along the way, they continued to trade what few goods they still had with the Indians and set up diplomatic relations with the Indians. Additionally, they recorded their contact with Indians and described the shape of the landscape and the and the animals in western North America, new to the white man. 

In doing so, they fulfilled many of Jefferson's wishes for the Expedition. Along the way, William Clark drew a series of maps that were remarkably detailed, noting and naming rivers and creeks, significant points in the landscape, the shape of river shore, and spots where the Corps spent each night or camped or portaged for longer periods of time. Later explorers used these maps to further probe the western portion of the continent.

Meriwether Lewis in 1807 was appointed Governor of the Louisiana Territory and stationed in St. Louis. Lewis had made many of the arrangements needed to illustrate and publish his journals of the expedition, but he was never able to work on or provide the manuscript. By 1809, he faced political difficulties and financial problems, as well as family and personal disappointments. Lewis committed suicide in October of 1809.

William Clark was appointed by President Jefferson to be Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the Louisiana Territory with the rank of Brigadier General of the Militia.  In 1808, Clark became one of the partners in the St. Louis Missouri River Fur Company. Clark was appointed Governor of the Missouri Territory in 1810. William Clark died on September 1, 1838.


Collection Includes:

Thomas Jefferson Papers & Correspondences

266 pages of transcriptions and images of Thomas Jefferson papers and correspondences dealing with the Lewis & Clark Expedition. Included are Thomas Jefferson's January 18, 1803, secret message to Congress proposing a westward expedition, a February 28, 1803, letter to Casper Wistar discussing Meriwether Lewis as leader of the expedition, an April 27, 1803, letter to Lewis outlining instructions for the trip, and a June 20, 1803 letter from Thomas Jefferson to Meriwether Lewis giving Lewis detailed instructions for his trip.


Journals of Lewis and Clark

853 pages of text transcription copied from the writings in the Journals of Lewis and Clark, written mostly by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, 1804-1806.  Other contributors to the journals are Sergeants Charles Floyd, Patrick Gass, John Ordway, and Private Joseph Whitehouse. Includes transcriptions of the raw journal entries made between May 14, 1804, the day the expedition left the Mississippi River, to September 26, 1806, a day or two after they arrived back in St. Louis. Includes all possible Journal entries of Lewis and Clark. Most of the "courses and distances" and "celestial observations" have been omitted. These transcripts of the journals include their original misspellings, period spellings, and abbreviations.

After the Corps of Discovery disbanded in 1806, many of Lewis and Clark's journals were deposited in the collections of the American Philosophical Society at Jefferson's urging. Some editors of the journals argued that the excellent condition of these journals indicates that they were fair copies made after the end of the expedition in September of 1806, and prior to Jefferson's receiving them at the end of the year. 

However, others suggest that the story is more complex. The American Philosophical Society collection consists of 18 small notebooks, approximately 4 by 6 inches of the type commonly used by surveyors in field work. Thirteen of these are bound in red Morocco leather, four in boards covered in marbled-paper, and one in plain brown leather, and there are loose pages and rough notes as well. The available evidence suggests that Lewis and Clark carried their notebooks sealed in tin boxes that were intended to protect the relatively fragile journals from the elements. If nothing else, with Jefferson's advising, that the journals were considered invaluable as the only reliable record of data gathered on the expedition. It seems likely, therefore, that great care would be taken in their preservation. 

From a close examination of the journals and sets of loose notes, noted Lewis and Clark historian Gary Moulton, among others, has concluded that Lewis and Clark often worked from rough notes compiled daily, then periodically transcribed these into more polished form in the bound volumes, however in most cases, the time between taking the notes and transcribing them must have been very brief. On many occasions, the explorers clearly wrote directly into the bound volumes. The journals contain huge volumes of data, going beyond geographical notes and records of temperature and weather.


Original Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, 1804-1806 Volumes 1-8
     
3,322 pages in 8 volumes first published 1904-1905, reprinted by Antiquarian Press LTD., New York in 1959.

Abstract: Printed from the original manuscripts in the Library of the American Philosophical Society and by direction of its Committee on Historical Documents, together with manuscript material of Lewis and Clark from other sources, including notebooks, letters, maps, etc., and the journals of Charles Floyd and Joseph Whitehouse. Edited, with Introduction, Notes, and Index, by Reuben Gold Thwaites, LL.D. 


History of the Expedition of Captains Lewis and Clark Volumes 1 & 2 (1814)

A digitally reproduced copy of an original 1814 printing of the book: History of the Expedition Under the Command of Captains Lewis and Clark, to the Sources of the Missouri, Thence Across the Rocky Mountains and Down the River Columbia to the Pacific Ocean: Performed During the Years 1804-5-6 by Order of the Government of the United States/Prepared for the Press by Paul Allen; Volumes 1 & 2. With a preface written by Thomas Jefferson.

After the suicide of Lewis, Clark, who felt that he was not up to the task, persuaded Nicholas Biddle to prepare a manuscript for publication of both Lewis' and Clark's journals from the expedition. With the help from Clark and George Shannon, one of the enlisted men on the expedition, the work took Biddle two years to complete. Royalties from the sale of the published journals were to go to Clark, but he never received a penny. Using the captains' original journals and those of Sergeants Gass and Ordway, Biddle completed a narrative by July 1811. After delays with the publisher, a two-volume edition of the Corps of Discovery's travels across the continent was finally available to the public in 1814. More than twenty editions appeared during the nineteenth century, including German, Dutch, and several British editions.


The Trail of Lewis and Clark, 1804-1904, Volumes I & II by Olin D. Wheeler, (1904)

Kathryn Hamilton Wang commented in her book "200 Books, 200 Years" (2008) on this book, “Although dated, the value of this publication lies with Wheeler’s travels along the Trail a mere 100 years after the Corps’ journey.”

A digital reproduction of the book: The Trail of Lewis and Clark, 1804-1904: A Story of the Great Exploration Across the Continent in 1804-1806, with a Description of the Old Trail Based Upon Actual Travel Over It, and of the Changes Found a Century Later. New York: Putnam's, 1904. 

Topographer, author, and railroad executive Olin D. Wheeler used the journals of Lewis & Clark as a guide to follow their trail. He followed the Lewis & Clark trail giving insight to the original journey, noting the important and interesting places visited by Lewis and Clark, then by tourists and travelers 100 years later. Volumes contains photographs, sketches, and maps.


Message from the President of the United States, Communicating Discoveries Made in Exploring the Missouri, Red River, and Washita, by Captains Lewis and Clark, Doctor Sibley, and Mr. Dunbar, with a Statistical Account of the Countries Adjacent

132-page printed copy published in 1806 of "Message from the President of the United States, Communicating Discoveries Made in Exploring the Missouri, Red River, and Washita, by Captains Lewis and Clark, Doctor Sibley, and Mr. Dunbar; with a Statistical Account of the Countries Adjacent" (New-York: Printed by Hopkins and Seymour, 1806).


The Original Journal of Sergeant Charles Floyd

Contains scans of the original journal and their transcription as found in the book, "The New Found Journal of Charles Floyd, a Sergeant under Captains Lewis and Clark, by James Davie Butler (1894).

The Floyd diary dates from May 14 through August 17, 1804. Charles Floyd (1782 – August 20, 1804) was an American explorer, a noncommissioned officer in the U.S. Army, and the quartermaster of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. A native of Kentucky, he was a son of Robert Clark Floyd, a nephew of James John Floyd, a cousin of Virginia governor John Floyd, and possibly a relative of William Clark. He was one of the first men to join the expedition, and the only member of the Corps of Discovery to die during the expedition. It is believed he died from peritonitis caused by a ruptured appendix.

 
First Across the Continent

An electronic book and text of First Across the Continent: The Story of Lewis and Clark Expedition, by Noah Brooks. Published in 1901, Brooks draws a narrative of the expedition using excerpts from the original journals of the expedition.


The Travels of Capts. Lewis and Clarke from St. Louis, by Way of the Missouri and Columbia Rivers, to the Pacific Ocean; Performed in the Years 1804, 1805 & 1806 (1809)

Complete title, "The Travels of Capts. Lewis & Clarke, by order of the government of the United States performed in the years 1804, 1805, & 1806: being upward of three thousand miles, from St. Louis, by way of the Missouri, and Columbia Rivers, to the Pacifick Ocean: containing an account of the Indian tribes, who inhabit the western part of the continent unexplored, and unknown before : with copious delineations of the manners, customs, religion, &c. of the Indians."


Timeline

A detailed 22-page timeline of the history of the Lewis & Clark expedition.


Maps

8 maps created before and after the Lewis & Clark expedition. Includes maps used by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark in their 1804 expedition up the Missouri River, with annotations in ink by Meriwether Lewis. Also includes maps made after the expedition utilizing information gained by Corps of Discovery.


National Park Service Documents

1,178 pages of material from the Department of the Interior's National Park Service covering the history of the Corps of Discovery and sites related to Lewis & Clark and the sites’ historical preservation. Highlights include:

Lewis and Clark Historic Places Associated with their Transcontinental Exploration (1804-06) by Roy E. Appleman (1975)

This book contains 242 pages relaying the historic background of the Lewis and Clark Expedition and 105 pages of survey of 41 Historic sites and buildings related to the Expedition.


The National Survey of Historic Sites and Buildings the Lewis and Clark Expedition Sites (1958)

The 1958, 177-page report titled, "United States Department of the Interior National Park Service The National Survey of Historic Sites And Buildings 1958 survey of several sites including: Three Forks of the Missouri, Montana; Lemhi Pass, Montana-Idaho; Travelers Rest, Montana; Lolo Trail, Idaho; Sergeant Floyd Grave Site and Monument, Iowa."

Abstract: This study represents the work of the National Park Service field staff assigned to The National Survey of Historic Sites and Buildings. In the process of evaluating the sites treated in the several themes, the Consulting Committee for the Survey and the Advisory Board on National Parks, Historic Sites, Buildings, and Monuments have screened the findings of the field staff. Some sites recommended by the field staff for classification of exceptional value have been eliminated, and in a few cases sites and buildings have been added to the lists of exceptionally valuable sites.


Newspapers

217 full newspaper sheets dating from 1803 to 1827 with coverage related to the Lewis and Clark Expedition.


Additional Books, Reports, and Monographs

An additional 18 books, reports, theses, and monographs comprising 2,463 pages on the Expedition. Highlights include:

NOAA National Weather Service - The Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition 1803-1806 Weather, Water & Climate (2004) 

A 123-page report produced in 2004 by the National Weather Service, describes the systematic climatological, hydrological, and meteorological events during the Lewis & Clark journey.

Into the Unknown the Logistics Preparation of the Lewis and Clark Expedition (2003)

Abstract: Captain Meriwether Lewis’s task was to equip and man a party to traverse the unmapped middle third of the United States. Most studies of the expedition begin with the party’s departure from Camp Dubois in the spring of 1804. This starting point ignores the important logistics planning, preparation and training that commenced with Lewis’s appointment as personal secretary to President Thomas Jefferson in the spring of 1801. Under President Jefferson’s watchful eye Lewis conducted extensive preparations at Washington D.C., Harper’s Ferry, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and St. Louis. Expedition journals, personal correspondence and equipment receipts are used to provide insight into the effectiveness of the endeavor’s logistics support plan. The study concludes by identifying four themes evident in the expedition’s planning and execution that are useful to modern logisticians: the value of innovation, the significance of support received from indigenous peoples, the employment of civilian contractors and the seemingly obligatory discovery that transportation capabilities rarely meet requirements.


The U.S. Army and the Lewis and Clark Expedition (2002)

Abstract: The U.S. Army and the Lewis and Clark Expedition, prepared as part of the Army's contribution to the observance of the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial Commemoration (2003-2006), is an engaging account of a stirring and significant event in American military heritage. While most Americans have some inkling of the importance of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, officially designated the "Corps of Volunteers for Northwestern Discovery," relatively few recognize that it was an Army endeavor from beginning to end. 

    
Letter from Thomas Jefferson to Meriwether Lewis, July 15, 1803

Transcription:

Washington July 15. 1803.

Dear Sir

I dropped you a line on the 11th inst. and last night received yours of the 8th. Last night also we received the treaty from Paris ceding Louisiana according to the bounds to which France had a right. Price 11 1/4 millions of Dollars beside paying certain debts of France to our citizens which will be from 1 to 4 millions. I received also from Mr. La Cepede at Paris, to whom I had mentioned your intended expedition a letter of which the following is an extract. 'Mr. Broughton, one of the companions of Captain Vancouver went up Columbia river 100. miles, in December 1792. He stopped at a point which he named Vancouver lat. 4527' longitude 23750'E. Here the river Columbia is still a quarter of a mile wide & from 12. to 36. feet deep. It is far then to it's head. From this point Mount Hood is seen 20. leagues distant, which is probably a dependence of the tony mountains, of which Mr. Fiedler saw the beginning about lat. 40 and the source of the Missouri is probably in the Stony mountains. If your nation can establish an easycommunication by rivers, canals, & short portages between N. York for example & the city [they were building] or [to be built] [for the badness of the writing renders it uncertain, which is meant, but probably the last] at the mouth of the Columbia, what a route for the commerce of Europe, Asia, 7 America.' Accept my affectionate salutations.

... Th. Jefferson

    
Letter from Thomas Jefferson to Meriwether Lewis, October 20, 1806

Transcription:

Washington, Oct. 20, 06.

I received, my dear sir, with unspeakable joy your letter of Sep. 23 announcing the return of yourself, Capt.Clarke & your party in good health to St. Louis. The unknown scenes in which you were engaged, & the length of time without hearing of you had begun to be felt awfully.Your letter having been 31 [28?] days coming, this cannot find you at Louisville & I therefore think it safe to lodge it at Charlottesville. Its only object is to assure you of what you already know my constant affection for you & the joy with which all your friends here will receive you. Tell my friend of Mandane also that I have already opened my arms to receive him. Perhaps, while in our neighborhood, it may be gratifying to him, & not otherwise to yourself to take a ride to Monticello and see in what manner I have arranged the tokens of friendship I have received from his country particularly, as well as from other Indian friends: that I am in fact preparing a kind of Indian Hall. Mr. Dinsmore, my principal workman, will shew you everything there. Had you not better bring him by Richmond, Fredericksburg & Alexandria? He will thus see what none of the others have visited & the conveniences of the public stages will facilitate your taking that route. I salute you with sincere affection.

... Th. Jefferson

Message of President Thomas Jefferson laying before the Senate the conventions with France for the cession of the province of Louisiana to the United States, 10/17/1803

A 1910 photograph taken by Edward Curtis of a Chinook Indian standing on river bank, Columbia River Valley site of Lewis and Clark's landing-place at Nihhluidih

High Resolution Map Scan Shown at 5%

Map of Missouri River and vicinity from Saint Charles, Missouri, to Mandan villages of North Dakota: used by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark in their 1804 expedition up Missouri River].

CREATED/PUBLISHED: 1798

NOTES
Date from accompanying text.
Relief shown by symbols for "Black Mountains" or Black Hills.
Some place names in both English and French.
Based on surveys up to the Mandan-Hidatsa villages by James Mackay and John Evans.
Longitudinal errors, at least in part, account for map not being drawn to scale.
Prime meridian: Paris [?].
Pen-and-ink. Some pen-and-ink annotations made after 1798.
Map backed with Japanese tissue paper.

On verso written in pen-and-ink by William Henry Harrison but unsigned: For Captn. William Clark or Captn. Meriwether Lewis on their voyage up the Mississippi.

Also on verso written in pen-and-ink: Mr. Peter Tabeau at the Ricraries. Imperfect: Stains, darkening, tears, creases, and small pieces missing.