August 2004, Volume 4, Issue 8

THE NEW PERSPECTIVES SYMPOSIUM

Beyond Lewis & Clark: A Symposium on Army Exploration and National Expansion

September 26 - 27, 2004

FEATURING:
James Ronda, John Logan Allen, Tom Chaffin, Ron Tyler & Brian Dippie

When Lewis & Clark returned from their exceptional journey, a new story was just beginning. This symposium will explore themes and issues raised in the nationally touring exhibition "Beyond Lewis and Clark: The Army Explores the West." Join us as a panel of respected historians present new perspectives on Lewis & Clark's impact and the expeditions that followed.

Registration:

• Members attending the symposium will have the opportunity to participate in a private opening reception with museum director David Nicandri and the conference presenters on September 26. To become a member phone 253/798-5902.
• Registration for the general public includes admission to all sessions, viewing of the exhibition "Beyond Lewis and Clark," light refreshments on Monday and closing reception. Monday lunch is not included.
• For discounted rate, registration must be received on or before September 13. After September 13, registration will only include the September 27 sessions.

For additional information, or to register, call 253/798-5877. Teacher registration is also available. Please call for details.

The Presenters:

John Logan Allen
Presentation Topic: The Immediate Legacy of Lewis and Clark: The Fur Trade in the Rockies, 1806-1812
John Logan Allen is chair of the Department of Geography at the University of Wyoming. He is the author of many books including Passage Through the Garden: Lewis and Clark and the Image of American Northwest and the soon to be published Garden, Desert, and Passage: Fur Trade, Fremont and the Shaping of American Images of the West, 1806-1846.

Tom Chaffin
Presentation Topic: John Charles Fremont: Reimagining the American West.
Tom Chaffin is a visiting scholar in the Department of History at Emory University and former director of the Emory University Oral History Project. He is the author of Fatal Glory: Narciso Lopez and the First Clandestine U.S. War Against Cuba and Pathfinder: John Charles Fremont and the Course of American Empire.

Brian W. Dippie
Presentation Topic: "Equal I Have Never:" Custer Explores the Black Hills, 1874
Brian W. Dippie is a professor in the History Department of the University of Victoria and a former president of the Western History Association. He is the author of many works including Custer's Last Stand: The Anatomy of an American Myth and The Vanishing American: White Attitudes and U.S. Indian Policy.

James P. Ronda
Presentation Topic: "Seeing the Western Country:" The Great Plains Expeditions of Stephen H. Long, 1819 -1820
James P. Ronda is the H. G. Barnard Chair in Western History at the University of Tulsa. Professor Ronda is the author of numerous books, including Lewis and Clark Among the Indians and Jefferson's West: A Journey with Lewis and Clark. He is a former president of the Western History Association and served as consulting historian on the nationally traveling exhibits "Rivers, Edens, Empires: Lewis & Clark and the Revealing of America" and "Beyond Lewis and Clark: The Army Explores the West."

Ron Tyler
Presentation Topic: "The Most Picturesque and Wonderful Scenery:" Illustrated Government Publications Related to the American West, 1843-1863
Dr. Ron Tyler is the director of the Texas State Historical Association and Professor of History at the University of Texas at Austin. He has written or edited numerous books on Western and American history and art, including Visions of America: Pioneer Artists in a New Land. He is editor of the Southwestern Historical Quarterly.

The Washington State History Museum is located at 1911 Pacific Avenue in downtown Tacoma. Please call 1-888-BE-THERE for general information.

ENCOUNTERS

September 30 - October 2, 2004
Lewis and Clark College

This year's symposium, Encounters, delves into the Expedition itself, painting a picture of the Expedition not as a linear excursion across space but rather as a series of encounters that frame rich and unprecedented experiences. Although Lewis and Clark set off with every confidence of their own cultural protocols, they soon moved beyond the customary boundaries of their social, cultural, and intellectual backgrounds, and responded to these new stimuli in different ways. Encounters will explore the Expedition's interconnection with other peoples, landforms, the limits of language, and the Self's response to unfamiliar landscapes and unprecedented situations.

N. Scott Momaday is a poet, Pulitzer prize-winning novelist, a playwright, a painter, a storyteller, and a professor of English and American literature. He is a Native American (Kiowa), and among his chief interests are Native American art and oral tradition.

Referred to as "the Dean of American Indian writers" by The New York Times, Momaday holds an important place in the American literary arts. Momaday was the first Native-American to be awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his novel, House Made of Dawn. But it is through the spoken word that his dedication to his people's heritage is most profoundly felt. Born a Kiowa in the Oklahoma Dustbowl, Momaday was raised on reservations in the Southwest, steeped in the oral tradition.

Dr. Momaday kicks off Lewis & Clark College's two-day symposium with a lecture on September 30, 2004, 8 p.m. at the First Baptist Church, 909 SW 11th Ave, Portland. This event is ticketed separately from the symposium. Tickets are available from TicketsWest at 503.224.8499 or www.ticketswest.com

For further information regarding this symposium and Bicentennial Programs, contact bicprog@lclark.edu or Sherry Manning, Director, Bicentennial Programs. 503 768-7207.
http://www.lclark.edu/org/bicprog/encounters.html

LEWIS AND CLARK AT THE WASHINGTON STATE HISTORY MUSEUM IN TACOMA

Exhibits

Beyond Lewis and Clark: The Army Explores the West
Nearly two hundred years ago, army captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark and their Corps of Discovery headed west with orders from President Thomas Jefferson to find a route to the Pacific Ocean and document the land and peoples they encountered on their way. The Lewis and Clark expedition became a model for subsequent army expeditions. An eight-decade story of army exploration west of the Mississippi is traced in the exhibition. Among the hundreds of images and objects in the exhibit are Meriwether Lewis's air rifle, original field notes and maps drafted by William Clark, and items associated with the Isaac Stevens railroad survey and treaty tour. WSHM will be the only West Coast venue to present this nationally touring exhibit. Sunday, February 15, through Sunday, October 31, 2004.

WEBSITE OF THE MONTH

By Sharon Hultman, WSHS Digital Projects Manager

TREASURES OF THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY

Jefferson proposes a Scientific expedition
Cross country in 1804-1806
Lewis and Clark's Specimens as sketched by Charles Willson Peale

This month's feature is the Treasures of the American Philosophical Society, in particular, several sections of that site that have direct relevance to the Lewis and Clark Expedition-Jefferson's unsuccessful attempts to explore the West, the journals of Captains Lewis and Clark, and specimen drawings by Charles Willson Peale.

Thomas Jefferson had great ambitions for the exploration of the Trans-Mississippi West. In 1793, in the absence of federal funding, then-Secretary of State Jefferson mustered the support of many of his friends to launch a scientific mission headed by the French botanist André Michaux . The subscription list for the voyage is purported to be the "only document known to have been signed by each of the first four Presidents of the United States." International politics contributed to the failure of this mission, but Jefferson's dream lived on. President Jefferson would revive his plans for exploring the West a few years later.

Adorned with photographs of the original journals, Cross country in 1804-1806 provides fascinating information on the journey of Lewis and Clark, as well as on the controversy over the relatively pristine condition of their journals. The APS collection consists of fourteen small leather-bound and four board and paper-bound field notebooks. Some editors have argued that the excellent condition of the journals is evidence that they are actually copies of field notes made after the expedition. Others believe that the tin boxes used to carry the journals across the nation served to protect the fragile journals.

At the bottom of the journal page is a link to drawings by Charles Willson Peale made from specimens brought back from the Lewis and Clark expedition, along with links to a map of the Great Falls of the Columbia and other sketches from the journals.

The American Philosophical Society website holds images and tales about many fabulous national treasures. Follow the links within the text to be taken ever more deeply into the priceless collections of the Society.

EVENTS LISTING

We are now listing bicentennial events and promotions in a large, searchable database, with several different search criteria, freeing up space in the electronic newsletter for more news-related items. If you would like to have an event or promotion listed in this new database, please direct all information to Mark Vessey at mvessey@wshs.wa.gov and he will post the listing.

To access this new feature, visit our website at www.washingtonhistory.org/lewisandclark and click the Bicentennial Events Calendar Database at the top of the page —or click on the link below.

PLEASE LOOK for additional information and updates on Bicentennial planning activities and projects in next month's e-newsletter.

ALSO - if you have articles or news-worthy information that you would like to contribute to this e-newsletter or to Washington's quarterly bicentennial newsletter, please contact Mark Vessey at 360.586.0219 or mvessey@wshs.wa.gov.

The Washington State Historical Society, lead agency of the state's Agency Assistance Team (AAT) for bicentennial planning, will send this newsletter via e-mail on a monthly basis to provide updates on events, projects, and activities going on around the state in preparation for the commemoration.

Your name is in the state's Lewis and Clark Trail database as someone who has expressed interest in the bicentennial. If you do not want to continue to receive this newsletter and/or other bicentennial communications, reply to this e-mail or contact Mark Vessey at the Heritage Resource Center 360.586.0219.