The Lewis and Clark Expedition Journals

In 1801, Thomas Jefferson began to organize an effort to explore the west. Jefferson had long hoped to have an exploration made west of the Mississippi and the Louisiana Purchase, in 1803, led to an even more pressing need to explore the American West. To lead this expedition, Jefferson selected his personal secretary, Meriwether Lewis, who in turn chose an army compatriot, William Clark, as second in command. The expedition left St. Louis in May 1804 and returned in September 1806. The success of the expedition opened vast areas of the American West, greatly changing the future of the United States.

The explorers kept numerous journals, of which the American Philosophical Society owns 30 (18 bound and 12 loose-leaf journals). All were carried throughout the journey in a water-proof tin box and likely were removed only when the explorers actually sat down to record their observations. The journals were donated by Thomas Jefferson in 1817 and by Nicholas Biddle in 1818.  The Eastern Journal and John Ordway’s journal were discovered on a shelf at the Biddle estate, Andalusia, in Bucks County, PA in 1913.  They were deposited at the Library in 1915 and were formally donated by Charles J. Biddle in 1949.

Displayed here are Codex H and Codex I from the Library’s journal collection. Codex H (1), in the foreground, displays a sketch of the Long and Short Narrows of the Columbia River, drawn by William Clark in October of 1805. The Long and Short Narrows are an area of the Columbia River, on the present-day border of Oregon and Washington State, where the river constricts, forming swift and dangerous rapids. While the company was able to navigate the rapids on their way to the Pacific in 1805, they were forced to abandon their large canoes in favor of horses they had acquired from local Native Americans.

The journal, Codex I (2), displayed on the left side of the case shows Clark’s January 1806 sketch of Cape Disappointment, located in present-day Washington State. Upon reaching the cape, the expedition was deceived by the breadth of the Columbia River estuary into thinking it had reached the Pacific. Eight more days of paddling were necessary for the group to finally reach its ultimate destination.

Meriwether Lewis and Nicolas Biddle, A Map of Lewis and Clark's Track, Across the Western Portion of North America From the Mississippi to the Pacific Ocean, Philadelphia: Bradford and Inskeep, 1814

Originally published in 1814, this map, bounded on the east by the Mississippi River and on the west by the Pacific Ocean charts the path of Lewis and Clark’s Corps of Discovery during its 1804-1806 expedition. The map, copied by Samuel Lewis from William Clark's original drawing, and engraved by Samuel Harrison, depicts the multiple ranges of the Rocky and Cascade Mountains, at a time when it was presumed that the mountains of the West were a single low range, similar to the Appalachian Mountains of the Eastern United States. The map also accurately tracks the courses of the Missouri and Columbia Rivers, and correctly depicts the sources of both major rivers. These achievements dispelled many significant assumptions about the geographical nature of the American West.

The map clearly charts the over-land journey of the group when travel by water became impossible. A keen eye will also notice the presence of notes of important events on the map (such as winter encampments), as well as significant geological features, such as waterfalls, swamps and rapids.

The map, while geographically and topologically significant, also displays important information regarding the Native American tribes encountered by the Corps of Discovery along its westward journey, as well as its return trip east. Centered on their tribal territory, a large number of bands are named, along with their tribal relations and populations (Of particular interest is a description of an area near the eastern Missouri River where the Sioux gathered to trade with one another).

Guillaume Delisle, Carte de la Louisiane et du cours du Mississippi dressée sur un grand nombre de mémoires, entrau tres [sic] sur ceux de M. de le Maire, par Guillaume de l'lsle de l'Académie R[oya]le des Sciences, Paris: unkown, 1720.
(Map of Louisiana and the route of the Mississippi river, taken from a number of memories which includes the remembrances of M. de le Maire, by Guillaume de L'Isle from the Royal Academy of Sciences)

This map, originally published in 1718 by French cartographer Guillaume Delisle, is the first to accurately depict the interior of what is now the United States. Unlike most European mapmakers of his time, Delisle relied on verifiable data supplied by astronomers, rather than focusing on aesthetics. Delisle used his training in mathematics and astronomy, as well as his grasp of the importance of scale, to create maps with greater accuracy than a majority of his contemporaries.

This map, centered on the Mississippi River, not only depicts the geographical features of the American interior, but also many of the Native American tribes that inhabited the area as well. A majority of the land illustrated in the map would be purchased by the United States in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, and would be explored by the Lewis and Clark expedition of 1804-1806.

John Melish, United States of America, Philadelphia: John Melish, 1819

This map of the United States from 1819 was produced by Scottish-American mapmaker John Melish, noted for producing some of the best early-American maps. Melish traveled the United States extensively before emigrating from Scotland and settling in Philadelphia in 1811. In 1812, he published Travels in the United States of America, which began his cartographic career.

This map is unique because of its date. Published in 1819, it depicts an America on the cusp of significant events that would both alter the country and eventually lead it to civil war. Illinois had been a state for only a year, and Maine would break off from Massachusetts to become a state only a year later, in 1820. The Missouri Compromise was also passed in 1820, admitting Missouri as a slave state, but prohibiting slavery in the former Louisiana Territory north of Missouri. Though the Compromise of 1820 marked the first instance of the government banning slavery in newly acquired territory, it served to deepen suspicion and resentment between slave and non-slave states, which would eventually lead to the American Civil War.

The larger Missouri Territory is depicted on the map, showing a significant amount of the lands surveyed by the Lewis and Clark expedition, even noting on the western edge of the map the spot where, “Clark’s canoes stop 3000 miles from the Mississippi.”