Primary Topics / Legacies

Legacies

“Legacy is a very slippery sort of term. How do you define the legacy of any historical event? How do you measure it? If we could erase our myth concepts of Lewis and Clark . . . it might reawaken something really extraordinary in our national consciousness”

    Becoming an American Epic

    The connection to children's literature

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    A reason for their continuing popularity may be traced to nineteenth century literature and the stimulation of interest in reading and teaching that brought fictionalized versions of the Lewis and Clark story to generations of young readers.

    Lewis, Beethoven, Napoleon

    An amazing coincidence

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    On 7 April 1805 three ‘heroic’ events occurred. The expedition set off from Fort Mandan, and Beethoven premiered his Third Symphony, the “Eroica,” dedicated to Napoleon Bonaparte. It was also the day Great Britain and Russia sealed a fateful alliance against that French emperor.

    System, Model and Legacy

    Nature's taxonomy

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    The science of the orderly classification of all living and extinct organisms is called taxonomy. It comprised a hierarchical outline of descriptors extending between the most general and the most specific and Lewis and Clark had a role.

    Jefferson’s Indian Hall

    Expedition souvenirs and specimens

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    Bostonian George Ticknor catalogued the “strange furniture” of the four walls of the room after his visit in 1815, listing heads and horns, “curiosities which Lewis and Clark found on their wild and perilous expedition,” mastodon bones, and the two Native American painted hides.

    Assessing the Legacy of Lewis and Clark

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    The author proposes a few metaphors for the Lewis and Clark story, not in any definitive way, but merely to help us all think about the legacy of the expedition.

    The Eighteen Toasts

    Celebrating their return

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    Two days after returning to St. Louis, its citizens celebrated the expedition’s return with a grand dinner and ball. Here are the eighteen toasts as reported in the Kentucky Western World.

    The Bear Claw Necklace

    Awakening the Bear

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    The Lewis and Clark’s bear claw necklace, recently ‘rediscovered’, is described and analyzed and suggests some of the many meanings and provocations related to it.

    Gritty American Place-Names

    Robert Southey's criticism

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    To the European Romantics, the gritty names those American explorers uttered sounded like throwbacks to a cruder, more barbarous epoch, boding ill for the future of poetic taste in the New World. In 1815, Robert Southey found plenty of evidence.

    Wheeler’s “Trail of Lewis and Clark”

    The trail 100 years later

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    The story Wheeler wished to tell can be found in his book’s subtitle: “A story of the great exploration across the Continent in 1804-06; with a description of the old trail, based upon actual travel over it, and of the changes found a century later.”

    Sheheke’s Delegation

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    Sheheke’s diplomatic trip to Washington City and his difficult return home brought down the careers of at least two great leaders—himself, and Meriwether Lewis.

    Synopsis Part 5

    Fort Clatsop to St. Louis

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    On 23 March 1806, once again battling the rising spring runoff, as it had each of the two previous years on the Missouri, the Corps of Discovery started up the Columbia River towards home.

    A Natural History Let Down

    Post-expedition reactions

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    For nearly 100 years, the Lewis and Clark Expedition’s full contribution to natural science was underpublished and a disappointment to many scientists expecting to learn more about the natural history of the regions explored. When it came to the mosquito, these naturalists were doubly disappointed.

    The Charbonneaus in St. Louis

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    In 1809, Toussaint, Sacagawea, and Jean Baptiste Charbonneau traveled to St. Louis. Jean Baptiste’s baptism began a new era in his life, is father would try to become a farmer, and Sacagawea would become sickly.

    The Last Journey of Meriwether Lewis

    Was it suicide or murder?

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    Lewis was about to journey to Washington to face his accusers. He only made it as far as Grinder’s Stand. But did he commit suicide or was he murdered?

    Post-expedition Botany

    Lewis worked under trying and difficult situations. While it is clear that he was only able to devote a portion of his time to the effort, what he did is widely respected.

    The Montana Frontier

    Lewis and Clark returned with reports of sweeping grasslands, abundant beaver, large seams of coal, endless buffalo herds. In the years that followed, Euro-Americans settlement increased and Native American populations decreased in an era known as the Montana frontier.

    Preserving the Expedition

    Peale's specimen displays

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    The stuffed birds and mammals, the skins and skeletons, and especially the Indian artifacts, that Peale received—mainly from Lewis, through Jefferson—greatly benefited the museum and consequently the public’s appreciation of the expedition.

    Coal Mining

    Fuel for the Industrial Revolution

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    Lewis and Clark reported seeing layers of coal along the Missouri River’s northern reach. Jefferson had only to look to Great Britain, already fifty years into the Industrial Revolution, to see what was coming.

    Failure

    Did they actually fail?

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    Did they take on too much risk when they split into small groups on the way home? Did the Lewis and Clark Expedition actually fail?

    First Accounts of the Expedition

    The first published accounts

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    Publications that attempted to tell the story of Lewis and Clark were being printed before Lewis and Clark had even returned from their trans-Mississippi exploration. Their popularity continued for approximately ten years after they returned to St. Louis.

    Influence on Science

    The captains’ careful observations of the geography, natural history, and ethnography of the American west and Pacific Northwest influenced many scientists who built on their work.

Discover More

  • The Lewis and Clark Expedition: Day by Day by Gary E. Moulton (University of Nebraska Press, 2018). The story in prose, 14 May 1804–23 September 1806.
  • The Lewis and Clark Journals: An American Epic of Discovery (abridged) by Gary E. Moulton (University of Nebraska Press, 2003). Selected journal excerpts, 14 May 1804–23 September 1806.
  • The Lewis and Clark Journals. by Gary E. Moulton (University of Nebraska Press, 1983–2001). The complete story in 13 volumes.