“As a leading undergraduate center for the historical study of American values and home to the most extensive collection of expedition-related writings in the world, Lewis & Clark College is uniquely suited to examine the context and consequences of the expedition,” says President Michael Mooney. Scholars will delve into topics ranging from the legacies of the American Enlightenment to the legal doctrine of discovery to the post-expedition plight of native cultures through exhibits, lectures, symposia, and other forums. Today that journey continues at Lewis & Clark College, where an ambitious, multidisciplinary roster of events will commemorate the journey’s 200-year anniversary and highlight the College’s varied and ample resources on the expedition. Theirs was a journey of self-discovery, of first encounters, of unprecedented exploration. Lewis and Clark’s Corps of Discovery surveyed an unfamiliar landscape, documented hundreds of native plants and animals, and encountered more than four dozen Indian tribes-many of whom had never before laid eyes on a white person. Although they found no such “Northwest Passage,” their 7,680-mile, 28-month journey yielded vast new knowledge that inspired a century of westward exploration and defined a nation. President Thomas Jefferson commissioned the two army captains in 1803 to explore the uncharted West and find a navigable water route to the Pacific Ocean.
Nearly 200 years ago, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark embarked on an epic journey into an unknown wilderness.
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