Day-by-Day / May 27, 1803

May 27, 1803

Slow chronometer

In Philadelphia, Meriwether Lewis has his new chronometer cleaned and inspected. Today, he writes a letter to the United States Surveyor General Andrew Ellicott informing him that he is sending it to Ellicott via Benjamin Smith Barton.

Chronometer

John Poole Mermaid Trademark

A brass clock on gimbals in a wooden box

© 2014 by Kristopher K. Townsend. Permission to use granted under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.

Lewis purchased his chronometer from Thomas Parker on 19 May 1803.

Philadelphia May 27th 1803.

Dear Sir,

I have at length been enabled to procure a Chronometer which you will receive by the hands of Mr. Barton who has been so obliging as to take charge of her . . . .

She has been cleaned by Mr. Voit, and her rate of going asscertained by observation to be 14″ too slow in 24 h.

My sincere respects to Mrs. Ellicott and the family and believe me your friend & Obt. Servt.

Meriwether Lewis[1]Lewis to Ellicott in Letters of the Lewis and Clark Expedition with Related Documents: 1783-1854, 2nd ed., ed. Donald Jackson (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1978), 51.

Related: Lewis’s Friends and Mentors

 

Notes

Notes
↑1 Lewis to Ellicott in Letters of the Lewis and Clark Expedition with Related Documents: 1783-1854, 2nd ed., ed. Donald Jackson (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1978), 51.

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.

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Unless otherwise noted, journal excerpts are from The Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, edited by Gary E. Moulton, 13 vols. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1983-2001).