The Corp of Discovery
Revealing the American West
Introduction | Primary Sources and Analysis Tools
Library of Congress Resources | Primary Source Set
Choose a link below to access printable PDF versions of these materials including additional information, color images and citations.
The Corp of Discovery - Revealing the American West Resource Booklet | Primary Source Set
Library of Congress Resources
Exhibits
American Treasures of the Library of Congress—Reason: The Lewis and Clark Expedition The American Treasures of the Library of Congress exhibition is an unprecedented permanent exhibition of the rarest, most interesting or significant items relating to America's past, drawn from every corner of the world's largest library. The American Treasures exhibition presents more than 250 items arranged in the manner of Thomas Jefferson's own library, the seed from which the present collections grew. In the “reason” section, many historical artifacts (such as maps and letters) associated with the expedition of Lewis and Clark can be found.
Accessed 10.03.08 http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/trr001.html
Rivers, Edens, Empires: Lewis and Clark and the Revealing of America This exhibition features the Library's rich collections of exploration material documenting the quest to connect the East and the West by means of a waterway passage. Along with providing a virtual tour, this exhibition also illustrates the timeline of North American discoveries made before, during, and after the expedition of Lewis and Clark.
Accessed 10.03.08
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/lewisandclark/lewisandclark.html
American Memory
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/index.html
The First American West: The Ohio River Valley 1750-1820 The First American West: The Ohio River Valley, 1750-1820 consists of 15,000 pages of original historical material documenting the land, peoples, exploration, and transformation of the trans-Appalachian West from the mid-eighteenth to the early nineteenth century. Among the sources included are books, periodicals, newspapers, pamphlets, scientific publications, broadsides, letters, journals, legal documents, ledgers and other financial records, maps, physical artifacts, and pictorial images associated with the Corps of Discovery. Accessed 10.03.08 http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/award99/icuhtml/fawhome.html
The Thomas Jefferson Papers The complete Thomas Jefferson Papers from the Manuscript Division at the Library of Congress consists of approximately 27,000 documents. This is the largest collection of original Jefferson documents in the world. Correspondence between Thomas Jefferson and Meriwether Lewis can be viewed here, along with other documents created by Jefferson to help the Corps of Discovery succeed in their mission. Accessed 10.03.08
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/jefferson_papers/index.html
America's Library
http://www.americaslibrary.gov
Meet Amazing Americans: Adventurers & Explorers: Lewis and Clark Designed for elementary and middle-school students, America's Library provides a variety of stories about Lewis and Clark.
http://www.americaslibrary.gov/cgi-bin/page.cgi/aa/explorers/lewisandclark
Lewis and Clark and the Great Falls Portage Lewis was thrilled to see the enormous waterfall, the Great Falls of the Missouri. It was 900 feet wide and 80 feet high with a "beautiful rainbow" just above the spray. http://www.americaslibrary.gov/cgi-bin/page.cgi/aa/explorers/lewisandclark/portage_1
Bears on the Lewis and Clark Expedition It was the largest bear they'd ever seen, a great grizzly bear that weighed an estimated 600 pounds. A "most tremendous looking animal, and extremely hard to kill," wrote Lewis in his journal on May 5, 1805.
http://www.americaslibrary.gov/cgi-bin/page.cgi/aa/explorers/lewisandclark/bears_1
Jump Back in Time - Gilded Age - North Dakota and South Dakota Were Admitted to the Union. Look at the map of Lewis and Clark's expedition to locate the Dakotas. http://www.americaslibrary.gov/cgi-bin/map.cgi?data=/assets/jb/gilded/jb_gilded _dakotas_1.sid&tnail=/assets/jb/gilded /jb_gilded _dakotas_1_n.gif& template =/jb/gilded/jb_gilded_dakotas_1_e.html
Wise Guide
“Go West, Young Men!” This Wise Guide portal was designed to introduce you to the many fascinating, educational and useful resources available from the nation's library and one of the most popular Web sites of the federal government. Within this Wise Guide, many details regarding the journey of Lewis and Clark through interactive sites, maps, and exhibitions are featured. Accessed 10.03.08 http://www.loc.gov/wiseguide/aug03/lewisclark.html
Fill Up the Canvas…Rivers of Words: Exploring with Lewis and Clark This learning page activity allows viewers to experience Lewis and Clark's journey westward through words, images, interactive maps and other documents. This learning page activity sheds light on the historical significance of the Lewis and Clark expedition, and the impact it had on the growth of the nation...and on its Native American inhabitants.
Accessed 10.03.08
http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/lewisandclark/index.html
Teacher's Page
Today in History is designed to help educators use American Memory Collections to teach history and culture.
Meriwether Lewis August 18 Explorer Meriwether Lewis, who joined William Clark to blaze a trail across the continent to the Pacific Ocean, was born on August 18, 1774, near Charlottesville, Virginia.
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/aug18.html
Wetward Ho! On October 20, 1803, the Senate ratified the Louisiana Purchase Treaty by a vote of twenty-four to seven.
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/oct20.html
North and South Dakota On November 2, 1889, North Dakota and South Dakota were admitted to the Union as the 39th and 40th states. Other than through fur trapping, exploration of the Dakotas by European-Americans was practically nonexistent prior to the 1803 Louisiana Purchase. In 1804, the Lewis and Clark Expedition wintered in present day North Dakota.
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/nov02.html
Presentations and Activities
http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/presentationsandactivities/
Zoom into Maps Maps help us make sense of our world. A sampling of the Library of Congress Geography and Map Division’s 4.5 million treasures has been digitized and is available in Map Collections: 1500 - 2003. This activity introduces historical maps from the American Memory collections. http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/maps/introduction.html
Fill up the Canvas... Rivers of Words: Exploring with Lewis and Clark This learning page activity allows viewers to experience Lewis and Clark's journey westward through words, images, interactive maps and other documents. This learning page activity sheds light on the historical significance of the Lewis and Clark expedition, and the impact it had on the growth of the nation..and on its Native American inhabitants.
Accessed 10.03.08 http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/lewisandclark/index
Themed Resources
http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/themes/
Lewis and Clark This section of the Learning Page will give you other areas on the Library of Congress website to explore. You will find collections in American Memory, search terms and you can even read the transcripts from the live chat session.
http://memory.loc.gov/learn/community/cc_lewisandclark.php
Collection Connection
http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/connections/
American Indians of the Pacific Northwest - (Summary and Teaching Resources) This collection integrates over 2,300 photographs and 7,700 pages of text relating to the American Indians in two cultural areas of the Pacific Northwest, the Northwest Coast and Plateau.
http://memory.loc.gov/learn/collections/pacific/index.html
Thomas Jefferson Papers at the Library of Congress - (Summary and Teaching Resources) The largest collection of original Jefferson documents in the world, the collection includes information about Jefferson.
http://memory.loc.gov/learn/collections/thomas/index.html
A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774-1873 - (Summary and Teaching Resources) Records and acts of Congress from the Continental Congress through the Forty-second Congress. http://memory.loc.gov/learn/collections/law/index.html
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