Background note
A merchant and cotton planter and one of the great scientific observers of the Old Southwest, William Dunbar led the 1804-1805
expedition to explore the southwestern boundaries of the Louisiana Purchase. With his second in command George Hunter, the
Dunbar expedition provided some of the earliest records of the flora and fauna of the Ouachita Mountains as well as the first
detailed chemical analyses of the Hot Springs of Arkansas.
Born into a noble family near Elgin, Morayshire, Scotland, in 1749, Dunbar had gained a sound education at Glasgow in science
and mathematics before emigrating to North America in 1771. From the moment of his arrival, he threw himself into the mercantile
community in Philadelphia, transporting a load of goods he had brought with him from London to Fort Pitt as his first effort
at entering the Indian trade. He formed a partnership with the well established Philadelphia merchant John Ross (also a Scot)
in 1773 and soon removed to a plantation in West Florida near modern day Baton Rouge to carry their enterprise down the Mississippi
and into the Caribbean.
Despite the vicissitudes of war, Dunbar and Ross prospered, and in 1792, they established another plantation, the Forest,
southeast of the important port city of Natchez in Spanish West Florida. Using the profits from his cultivation and sale
of indigo and cotton, Dunbar was able to buy out his partner by the late 1790s.
Despite all his frenetic activity as a merchant and planter, Dunbar became known for his scientific talents. His agricultural
activities in particular were viewed as progressive, involving innovations in the form of plows and harrows, the cotton gin,
and other aspects of cotton production, and this reputation, combine with his great wealth, earned him a succession of important
positions in the Spanish colonial administration. As Surveyor General for West Florida and a member of the boundary commission
in 1798, Dunbar was introduced to the surveyor Andrew Ellicott, and through him, to Thomas Jefferson and much of the rest
of the small American scientific establishment. During the later 1790s and early 1800s, Dunbar developed an increasing interest
in scientific matters, building a remarkably well equipped astronomical observatory at the Forest, conducting investigations
into natural history, Indian languages, and paleontology, among an eclectic range of topics. After gaining election to the
American Philosophical Society in 1800, Dunbar contributed a dozen articles to the Transactions over the course of a decade.
Following the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, Jefferson conceived of organizing not only the expedition of Lewis and Clark, but
a parallel expedition to the southern Mississippi Valley to help delineate the still murky southwestern boundaries of the
Purchase. As the most prominent scientist in the Old Southwest, and despite being over 50, Dunbar was the logical choice
to lead the expedition, and George Hunter, a Scottish chemist and druggist from Philadelphia, was selected as second in command.
Although the Dunbar expedition was originally slated to survey the entire region subtended by the Arkansas and Red River watersheds,
friction with the Osage Indians and Spanish colonial officials led Jefferson and Dunbar to curtail the scope to a more manageable
foray up the Red River to the Ouachita as far as the Hot Springs.
On October 16, 1804, Dunbar, Hunter, and a party of 15 left St. Catharine's Landing for an expedition that lasted just under
three months. Although the scale of the enterprise was less dramatic than that of Lewis and Clark, and the results somewhat
more modest, Dunbar and Hunter provided some of the earliest natural historical observations on the region and performed the
first detailed chemical analyses of the hot springs.
Scientific pursuits occupied much of the last half decade of Dunbar's life. He remained a minor political and cultural force
in the Mississippi Territory as a member of the territorial legislature and in other offices until his death on the twelfth
anniversary of the Red River expedition, Oct. 16, 1806.
Scope and content
Both manuscripts by William Dunbar document the expedition up the Red and Ouachita Rivers to the Hot Springs of Arkansas in
1804-1805. The "Journal... to the Mouth of the Red River" (200p.) is the fullest available record of the activities of the
expedition from the time of their departure from St. Catharine's Landing on October 16, 1804, until their return to Natchez,
Miss., on January 26, 1805. The "Journal of a geometrical survey" includes a record of course and distances as well as a
thermometrical log and other brief notes.
Dunbar's journals are counterparts to those of George Hunter (call no. B H912), and were bound with Zebulon Pike's "Journal
of a voyage to the source of the Mississippi in the years 1805 and 1806."
Administrative information
Restrictions
None.
Provenance
Gift of Daniel Parker through James Cutbush, July 18, 1817.
Preferred citation
Cite as: William Dunbar, "Journal of a Voyage... to the Mouth of the Red River," American Philosophical Society or William
Dunbar, "Journal of a Geometrical Survey... to the Hot Springs," American Philosophical Society.
Processing information
Recatalogued by rsc, 2003.
Other finding aids
The journals are also indexed in the
On-line Guide to American Indian Manuscripts at the APS (Freeman and Smith 57 and 470).
Additional information
Related material
The APS has copies of
George Hunter's journals for the expedition to the Hot Springs (call no. B H912) as well as a contemporary copy of Hunter's "Journal up the Red and Washita Rivers with William Dunbar"
(call no. 917.6 Ex7).
The bulk of Dunbar's papers are housed in the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, Jackson, Miss. Additional papers,
including his journal of the expedition to the Hot Springs, are housed in the special collections department of the Ouachita
Baptist University library.
References
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Rowland, Eron, Life, letters and papers of William Dunbar of Elgin, Morayshire, Scotland, and Natchez, Mississippi : pioneer scientist of
the southern United States (Jackson, Miss.: Mississippi Historical Society, 1930). (Call no.: B D912r.
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Jefferson, Thomas, Documents relating to the purchase and exploration of Louisiana : I. The limits and bounds of Louisiana (Boston: Houghton Miffin, 1904). (Call no.: 973.4 J35d).
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Jefferson, Thomas, Message communicating discoveries made in exploring the Missouri, Red River and Washita, by Lewis and Clark, Sibley and Dunbar;
with a statistical account of the countries adjacent (Washington: A. and G. Way, 1806) . (Call no.: 973 Un3).
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Lewis, Meriwether, Travels in the interior parts of America : communicating discoveries made in exploring the Missouri, Red river, and Washita (London: R. Phillips, 1807) . (Call no.: 917.3 L58t).
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