Home
Credits
Links
Contact

 




Each of the six different images in this animation
is interactive.
Click on any one before it fades away.



onceived in 1993, and online since 1998, Discovering Lewis & Clark® is a hyperhistory in progress. It is enhanced by an average of at least one new interpretive episode each month, employing a variety of multmedia techniques. The site focuses on issues, values, discoveries and events relating to the Lewis & Clark Expedition, its preludes, and its aftermath up to the present time. Click here to view a synopsis of the expedition's story.

 
Still to come in 2008

he series, "Day by Day with Lewis and Clark", consisting of 635 audio vignettes produced by Yellowstone Public Radio during the Bicentennial observance; Castle McLaughlin, of Harvard's Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, will interpret some of the cultural significances of Indians' gifts that Lewis and Clark brought back; some answers to those "Lingering Questions" about the design and navigation of dugout canoes, by William W. Bevis, scholar, author and veteran canoeist; those famous "'Three curses' of Meriwether Lewis"; and "The Sonic Substance of the Lewis and Clark Trail."

 

New in August-September 2008

lewis and Clark College (Portland, OR) archivist Doug Erickson's essay on "The Persistence of the Lewis & Clark Story in 19th-Century American Literature," includes discussions of early accounts of the expedition; writings by naturalists such as Wilson and Audubon; fiction by Irving and Poe; and Lewis and Clark stories for children and youths.

"More Portraits of William Clark" now includes, in addition to Charles Willson Peale's well-known oil painting, images by artists John Wesley Jarvis, Chester Harding, and sculptor William Partridge, as well as a rare engraving owned by a Peyton C. "Bud" Clark, a direct descendant of the General.

All 111 pages of Discovering Lewis & Clark from the Air, featuring photos by photographer Jim Wark, have been revised to include links to other pages in the site, and some have been expanded with new content — such as "A Froth of Feathers" and "The Musselshell River".

A page on "The Judith River" has been added to Missouri River Scenes, featuring an aerial view of its confluence with the Missouri.

Two pages have been enhanced with recently acquired graphic elements: "Hell's Gate," and "Bull Boats."

Botanist and photographer H. Wayne Phillips, author of Plants of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, published in 2003 by Mountain Press, has donated his entire collection of more than 300 photos of botanical specimens and habitats for use in Discovering Lewis & Clark®. The first of many examples to appear is his eye-level view of the mouth of Portage Creek, accompanying Jim Wark's aerial view of the Lower Portage Camp site.

Recent Additions

obert Bergantino's "Jefferson's Debt Repaid" has been revised. This is the preface to his series of essays on the celestial observations that Meriwether Lewis made at nine of the most important locations on the expedition's route.

In addition, to show how complicated and time-consuming the processes of turning observational data into geographic locations were in those days, Prof. Bergantino has prepared a downloadable Portable Document File (PDF) containing all of the "Calculations for the Celestial Observations that Meriwether Lewis Made at the Three Forks of the Missouri"

The original 24 short pages comprising Professor Harry Fritz's synopsis, "The Lewis & Clark Expedition: A Western Adventure — A National Epic," have been reorganized into five long pages. Numerous links to other pages of interest in the site have been added.

We continue to welcome not only corrections of facts but also serious discussions of any topics, new or old, that appear in Discovering Lewis & Clark®. For an example of the way in which we accommodate extended comments, see "Adding it Up."

Getting Around...

here are a number of ways to navigate Discovering Lewis & Clark®. You can explore most of the contents through links from Prof. Harry W. Fritz's synopsis, Lewis & Clark-- A Western Adventure, A National Epic . Alternatively, you can navigate via the the "Discovery Paths" and "Journal Excerpts" menus in the navigation frame at left.

You may use the Search utility to find pages about specific topics, or browse the Table of Contents, which lists all the pages in the site.


 
From Discovering Lewis & Clark®, http://www.lewis-clark.org © 1998-2008 VIAs Inc.
© 2008 by The Lewis and Clark Fort Mandan Foundation, Washburn, North Dakota.
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)