Pennsylvania played a major role in the history of the Lewis & Clark Expedition. Meriwether Lewis studied for the expedition and purchased his equipment in Philadelphia, started his journey in Pittsburgh, and deposited his journals and most of his specimens for study, publication, and display in the City of Brotherly Love, home to the nation's first museum of natural history.
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1801 |
The 26-year old Meriwether Lewis is appointed correspondence secretary to President Jefferson. |
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1801 |
President Thomas Jefferson reads the newly published account of Scottish explorer Alexander Mackenzie's crossing over the Canadian Rockies. |
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1803 |
Jefferson proposes an Expedition "to the Western Ocean" to the U.S. Congress in a confidential message. |
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1803 |
Lewis in Pittsburgh returning from the Great Lakes, receives and accepts Jefferson's invitation to lead the Expedition |
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1803 |
Lewis visits Lancaster, PA and is trained by astronomer and surveyor Andrew Ellicott to learn the plotting of latitude and longitude for purposes of mapmaking. |
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1803 |
Lewis continues training in Philadelphia with Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Smith Barton, Robert Patterson, and Caspar Wistar. |
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1803 |
Conestoga wagon filled with supplies purchased for the Expedition leaves Philadelphia for Pittsburgh. |
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1803 |
The Louisiana Purchase publicly announced in Washington, D.C. Jefferson gives Lewis his final instructions and a letter of credit. |
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1803 |
- Lewis leaves Washington, D.C. for Pittsburgh, first stopping at Harpers Ferry, VA before traveling on to Western Pennsylvania. |
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1803 |
Lewis arrives in Pittsburgh to purchase his 55-foot keelboat, still under construction. |
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1803 |
The keelboat is completed in Pittsburgh and the journey down the Ohio River to the Mississippi River begins. |
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1803 |
Lewis arrives in Louisville, Kentucky and joins William Clark and his men to continue the Expedition. |
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1804 |
The expedition sets off up the Missouri River from Camp Dubois, Illinois. William Clark and Patrick Gass both write their first journal entries. |
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1805 |
The keelboat sets off back down the Missouri from Fort Mandan, filled with eight men and a collection of specimens and artifacts for President Jefferson. |
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1805 |
Lewis arrives at the Pacific Ocean near what is now Seaview, Washington. One week earlier, on the Columbia River Estuary, Clark wrote: "Great joy in camp we are in view of the Ocian this great Pacific Ocean which we been so long anxious to See. and the roreing or noise made by the waves braking on the rockey shores…" |
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1806 |
The Expedition returns down to Missouri River. Three days later they "arrive in Saint Louis to cheers of 1,000 " |
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1807 |
Lewis returns to Philadelphia and Philadelphia publisher John Conrad issues a prospectus for a three-volume work promised within one year. |
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1807 |
Publication of Patrick Gass" Journal of the Voyages and Travels of a Corps of Discovery. |
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1809 |
Lewis commits suicide near Nashville, Tennessee. |
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1810 |
Clark sits for his portrait by Charles Willson Peale, who attempts to convince him to editor the Expedition's journals. Clark convinces Nicholas Biddle to accept the assignment two months later. |
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1814 |
The History of the Expedition Under the Command of Captains Lewis and Clark, including the first detailed map of the American West, is published in Philadelphia. Frederick Pursh's Florae Americae Spectentrionalis, describing plants collected by Lewis and Clark is published in London. |
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1870 |
Death of Patrick Gass, the last surviving member of the Corps of Discovery. |
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