Molly Kruckenberg
Research Center Director
William Clark, Meriwether Lewis and the Corps of
Discovery’s successful return to St. Louis on September 23, 1806, was far from
the end of the story of the Corps. Tasked
with keeping a written record of their journey, Lewis and Clark as well as
several other members of the expedition kept daily journals of their
activities. Sergeants John Ordway and
Patrick Gass as well as Private Robert Frazer were among those that also kept a
record of the journey. [i]
After the return of the Corps there began a brief battle over who would publish
the first account of the expedition.
Although rumors of a publication of Private Frazer’s
journal surfaced and Lewis did his best to discredit publications not by he and
Clark[ii],
Patrick Gass’ journal was the first one published. Shortly after returning from the Expedition, Gass
had sold his journal and publication rights to David McKeehan, a Pittsburgh,
PA, bookseller. After much editing and
transcription, McKeehan published the journal in 1807, under the title Journal of the Voyages and Travels of a Corp
of Discovery and followed with an additional printing in 1808. Two years later, Mathew Carey of
Philadelphia, acquired the copyright to Gass’ journal and published more
editions in 1810, 1811, and 1812.
It wasn’t until 1814, five years after Lewis’ death, and
through the work of Philadelphian Nicholas Biddle, that Clark was able to see
an edition of the official journals published.
Clark had worked closely with Private George Shannon to assist Biddle in
the production of History of the
Expedition under the Command of Captains Lewis and Clark.[iii] Published by Bradford and Inskeep, also of
Philadelphia, the two-volume set was primarily a narrative account of the
expedition and did not include any details of the scientific discoveries
recorded by Lewis and Clark.[iv]
The MHS Research Center is fortunate to hold several
early publications of the journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, including
an 1810 edition of the Gass journal and the 1814 Biddle edition of Lewis and
Clark’s journals. While the Gass journal
is a recent donation, the Biddle edition has been in the care of the Research
Center for more than a century.
Kept in our secure and environmentally-controlled storage
facilities, these volumes are a significant part of our rare book
collection. Given their age of more than
two centuries, though, the books were beginning to show some gentle wear and
tear. Last year the Research Center undertook
a project to see that these volumes were properly conserved so that they would
be available for use and study for the next two hundred years.
The professional conservators at the Northeast Document
Conservation Center in Andover, Massachusetts received the books in the fall of
2016 and conducted an initial review of their condition. Each of the three volumes contained several
issues, from patches and scuffs on the leather covers, to dirt, discoloration
and water stains. Conservators cleaned
the pages, repaired bindings, reinforced sewing, mended tears and created
custom storage boxes for each volume.
The images here illustrate the before and after condition of the title
pages for two of the volumes. The
completion of this work stabilizes the volumes making them ready for study by
the next generation of Montana history scholars.
[i]
Private Joseph Whitehouse also kept a journal and Sergeant Charles Floyd kept a
journal until his untimely death August 20, 1803.
[ii]
Meriwether Lewis published a notice in the National
Intelligencer (Washington D.C.) on March 18, 1807 warning the public not to
purchase any publication about the Expedition not authored by himself.
[iii]
The complete title is History of the
Expedition under the Command of Captains Lewis and Clark, to the Sources of the
Missouri, Thence across the Rocky Mountains and down the River Columbia to the
Pacific Ocean.
[iv]
Aarstad, Rich and Jennie Stapp. “Travel and Exploration Narratives in the
Montana Historical Society Collection.” Montana the Magazine of Western History
(Vol. 55 No. 3), p63-65.
