Journals of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark
(1804–6)

URL: http://xroads.virginia.edu/∼HYPER/JOURNALS/toc.html

SITE SUMMARY: The University of Virginia's American Studies Department provides links to some reproduced chapters in the Journals Lewis and Clark wrote during their exploration of the Louisiana Territory, then a wilderness area, and today the U.S. states west of St. Louis, Missouri (except Alaska and Hawaii). Many Journal entries feature the explorers' observations of plants, animals, waterways, and geological and natural geographical features they discovered during their expedition, ordered by President Thomas Jefferson shortly after he bought the territory from France. (Click a chapter's link, and read, or click search and do an xroads search for expedition subjects.)

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS AND ACTIVITIES

1. What kinds of birds did Lewis and Clark discover according to the Journal entries for August 22 and July 20, 1805? How did they describe their discoveries? What names are these birds called today? (See also data at the Discovering Lewis and Clark, and Golden Gate California Audubon Society, Web sites; especially the Society's Early Birds—Lewis' Woodpecker, Other Expedition Birds, and Journals' Descriptions page. Then find data at the Journals site. [Find these sites as noted in the Related Internet Sites section below.])
2. What kinds of flowers did Lewis and Clark discover according to the Journal entries for August 21, 1805 and June 1, 1806? What names were given to these flowers? By whom? (See also the Lewis and Clark Herbarium site via the Natural History featured area at the Lewis and Clark Archive on the Information Superhighway Web site whose url is cited in the Related Internet Sites section below.)
3. Some animals and plants were not known until Lewis and Clark discovered them. Choose a Journal entry cited below. Name and briefly describe a previously unknown animal or plant. What was special about one group of animals? (May; June 4 and 11; July 1; September 11-22, 1805) (January-March; May-June, 1806). Option: Also cite comments from the Animals Lewis and Clark Discovered Web site whose url is cited in the Related Internet Sites section below.
4. Study Clark's definition of "sensible science," found in the Journal entry for January 21, 1804. (For help, see the Discovery Paths at the Discovering Lewis and Clark Web site.) Next, study timelines, or follow links, for information involving the rivers Lewis and Clark explored (via the American Rivers and Jefferson's West Web sites), then visit the University of Kentucky Journals Project Web site found via the Lewis and Clark Archive on the Information Superhighway site, and search Clark's Journal. Choose descriptions of a plant and an animal he discovered. Describe how he applied "sensible science" in his descriptions. Visit a backyard, zoo, botanical garden or park. Using Clark's criteria, describe an animal and a plant, at one or two of these places. (Urls for sites referred to above are cited in the Related Internet Sites section below.)
5. Look through Web site links at the Lewis and Clark Archive on the Information Superhighway, including the University of Kentucky Journals Project Web site, and visit the American Rivers Web site. (Find sites' urls as cited in the Related Internet Sites section below.) Search for information on a natural feature (e.g., river, mountain peak) that Lewis or Clark saw. Search the Journals by dates. Describe the natural feature. Note "then" and "now" similarities and differences where possible.
6. Find via the Lewis and Clark Archive on the Information Superhighway Web site: President Jefferson's June 20, 1803 Letter to Lewis. (Its url is cited in the Related Internet Sites section below.) Study the letter, then list the nature related studies Jefferson suggested that Lewis do during the expedition. Next, imagine you are a president, suggest nature-related studies explorers should do when exploring new territory, today, first on Earth, in a particular natural geographical area, and then on another planet. Describe how some views of exploration in the past and present are similar, and different. (Note: See also Question/Activity no. 7 below.)
7. Find Web pages, noted in the Related Internet Sites section below, with documents by Presidents Thomas Jefferson, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush; plus Congressman Rohrabacher (via the Sciences at NASA Transcript of Request to Congress Web page); and historian Irving Anderson (via the Lewis and Clark Heritage Trail Foundation Web site). Read each document. Compare these men's thoughts on the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Identify their different perspectives with relation to their times, positions, and points of view.
8. Besides writing descriptions of animals and plants, Lewis and Clark made illustrations of them. Sometimes they picked and pressed plants, and killed then stuffed animals, to study them and have evidence of them. Suggest other ways to study animals, especially ways available today that are similar to, yet different from, the methods Lewis and Clark used. Do a "study an animal" project using one of today's ways, and one humane way used by Lewis or Clark.
9. Read President Jefferson's Letter to Lewis and Letter to Congress. (See urls for these sites cited in the Related Internet Sites section below.) Jefferson thought there would be two great benefits that the United States would get from this area acquired in the Louisiana Purchase. What are they? Do you agree, disagree, approve? Which of Jefferson's "benefits" was actually "beneficial"? Which other things, not beneficial, have happened in parts or all of the original territory? Which other benefits, especially nature related, have come from this area, especially through time? (For information, see Web sites whose urls are cited in the Related Internet Sites section below.)

RELATED INTERNET SITE(S)

National Park Service Lewis and Clark Heritage Trail Foundation

http://www.lewisandclark.org

Features links to Irving Anderson's "History of the Expedition" and a coming database at www.lewishandclark.org/traildata.htm.

President Thomas Jefferson's Message to Congress, February 19, 1806

http://archives.gov/research_room/nail/search_nail.html (choose digital copies search)

Type "lewis clark" as keywords, select textual records from media menu, click search, get seven hits, then click display. Click thumbnail button under seventh item [no. NWL-233-PRESMESS9AD1-1]. Click page image links to get to digitized reproductions of Jefferson's three-page message telling Congress of the explorers' discoveries.

Discovering Lewis and Clark

http://www.lewis-clark.org (click Introduction link, then follow links)

This ongoing project has links to Journal excerpts by date, discovery paths (e.g., natural history and geography), quick trip suggestions, word search utility, an Expedition synopsis (with links to more data) by Harry W. Fritz (history professor at the University of Montana at Missoula), links to preparation, the Expedition, and the return trip, plus links to nineteen parts (e.g., A Critical Landmark, Majestically Grand Scenery, High on the Plains, Turning Point, and Down to the Sea, many with links to related data). See also a follow the map invitation and a suggestion to click links to progress through the site's documents. Note in addition a what's new at the site link, communications (e.g., links, and what's coming soon), links to other Lewis and Clark Web sites, special illustrations, and audio options. All features, very useful for aiding access to the Journals, are supported by the University of Montana's Technology Resource Center, and others, and is endorsed by the National Lewis and Clark Bicentennial Council. Some site areas require special software for access.

Lewis and Clark Archive on the Information Superhighway

http://www.lewisandclark.org/index.html

Links go to many informative sites. Access is via a main page with links to new sites just added to the archive, via a Featured Sites links page, and via a Full List links page. On the full list page note "President Jefferson's Letter to Lewis, June 20, 1803" (under J) (that instructs Lewis what to do on the trip), Birds and Mammals Observed by Lewis and Clark, Flora and Fauna found during the Expedition, and the University of Kentucky Lewis and Clark Journals Project (an online version of Journal parts, arranged, sometimes quoted or paraphrased, with access via dates, places noted, and data on botany, geology and zoology). On the Featured Sites links page note Natural History, Geography, Artifacts and Archaeology, Traveling the Lewis and Clark Trail, Lewis and Clark Education sites, plus general Lewis and Clark information sites. On the new sites' links page note the Academy of Natural Sciences Collections—Lewis and Clark Herbarium; and comments given in the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial Year by George W. Bush, then U.S. President.

Lewis and Clark at American Rivers—An Online Community of Activists and Friends

http://www.amrivers.org (click link to Find Out What Lewis and Clark Learned)

Learn about what Lewis and Clark encountered during their Expedition with relation to rivers, and what they might think if they returned today to retrace their journey. Find also, on bottom of a Discovering the Rivers page, a Rivers of Lewis and Clark link leading to information on the five rivers Lewis and Clark explored and efforts to restore them.

Sciences at NASA—Transcript of 1999 Budget Request to Congress

http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/legaff/Calen98.html (click transcript link)

Data from a February 25, 1998 meeting notes ways NASA would use U.S. government money. See comments by Dana Rohrabacher (the head of the Congressional House of Representatives Committee on Sciences and Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics) noting how he compared the Space Program to the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

Bill Clinton on the Lewis and Clark Expedition

http://www.smithsonianmag.si.edu/smithsonian/issues96/aug96/bill.html

On request of Smithsonian Magazine editors, Bill Clinton, then U.S. President, at the end of the twentieth century, chose a time in history he would most like to visit. This article explains his reasons for choosing this expedition and gives his evaluation of the trip.

Jefferson's West—Thomas Jefferson and the Lewis and Clark Expedition

http://www.monticello.org/jefferson/lewisandclark

See the statement on Jefferson's goals for the Expedition, a link to an Expedition timeline that features Jefferson sending Lewis to learn from scientists (named here), and nature discoveries. See also, under Preparations, link to instructions (in a June 20, 1803 letter to Lewis); and, under Origins—Library of America, link to scientific books brought on the expedition, and link to related links such as the Lewis and Clark National Forest.

Nature-Related Activities (no. 4, no. 5) in Lesson Plan on the Lewis and Clark Expedition

www.archives.gov/digital_classroom/lessons/lewis_and_clark/teaching_activities.html

Animals Discovered by Lewis and Clark

http://www.pbs.org/lewisandclark/living/idx_7.html

Expedition scholars and authors provide comments in print and via audioclips.

Early Birds—Lewis' Woodpecker, plus Other Expedition Birds, and Journal Descriptions

www.goldengateaudubon.org/Birding/Excursions/EarlyBirds/LewisWoodpecker.htm

This page has data on the only bird named for Lewis, the bird named for Clark, the bird sent alive to Jefferson, the number and kinds of birds found during the Expedition, the odyssey of the Journals' publication history, and early treatment of the Journals' scientific notes, including descriptions of birds and other animals.

"The Lewis and Clark Expedition's Ties to Pennsylvania" by Frank Muhly

http://www.lewisandclarkphila.org/philadelphiafrankmuhly.html

Has data on planning for the Expedition (e.g., Lewis' consultations with a naturalist, an ornithologist, a botanist, and other scientists who taught him basic health standards, how to look for fossils, how to navigate by the stars, survey land, and determine latitude and longitude), and post-Expedition aspects (e.g., a herbarium for discovered plants, and an artist who sketched discovered plants and birds). See links to more data and for educators.

Peter Custis, Naturalist on the Lewis and Clark Expedition

http://www.lewis-clark.org/FREEMANCUSTIS/ENGLISH/fr_floE9.htm

The Science of the Lewis and Clark Expedition

http://www.nps.gov/jeff/LewisClark2/CorpsOfDiscovery/preparing/science.htm