- JOHN BOLEY LEWIS AND CLARK CORPS OF DISCOVERY FULL
- JOHN BOLEY LEWIS AND CLARK CORPS OF DISCOVERY PLUS
In Philadelphia, publisher Matthew Carey issued three editions the last of which was illustrated with the first images associated with the Expedition. Gass" Journal did not fall into the hands of some wag." And, in fact, Gass's book was remarkably accurate and entertaining. The Expedition's official history, edited by Nicholas Biddle, would not appear until 1814.) But publisher McKeehan defended himself in the Pittsburgh Gazette, arguing that "Mr. Unhappy at being beaten to publication by his former sergeant, Lewis warned the public that Gass's journal and other unofficial publications - including a bogus narrative of the Expedition printed in Lebanon, Pennsylvania - were incomplete and inaccurate. By early summer, the American public was able to read the first book-length account of the Expedition, which included Gass' detailed accounts of Indian-made dwellings and an unforgettable recipe for bear that he learned from the Nez Perce tribe. Illustration from Patrick Gass When the expedition returned from the West in late 1806, Gass settled in Wellsburg, Virginia (now West Virginia), and arranged to publish his journals with the help of Pittsburgh bookseller David McKeehan, who turned Gass" original field notes into a readable story and supplied "such geographical notes and other observations as I supposed would render it more useful and satisfactory to the reader." In the spring of 1807, McKeehan hired Pittsburgh's Zadok Cramer to print Gass's Journal of the Voyages and Travels of a Corps of Discovery. During the next three years he was remarkably responsible in writing in his entries, the only lapses taking place when he was constructing canoes or building Camp Dubois and Fort Mandan. Gass began his diary on May 14, 1804, the day the expedition left its winter camp at the junction of the Missouri and Mississippi. Seven other members of the expedition did so, including Gass, who had not learned to read or write until he was an adult. Lewis and Clark would keep the expedition's official journals, but they also requested that others keep diaries. Jefferson had been very clear about the importance of documenting the expedition. Weiser, a descendent of frontier diplomat Conrad Weiser.
Seven were associated with Pennsylvania, including Gass, Hugh McNeal, George Gibson, John Newman, John Boley, George Shannon, and Peter M. When the expedition finally set out from Saint Louis, eleven of the thirty-five volunteers were from Kentucky, where Lewis and Clark did their most intensive recruiting. They wanted "stout" and "healthy" frontiersmen in top physical condition, men "capable of bearing bodily fatigue in a pretty considerable degree," for Clark knew well that "a judicious choice of our party is of the greatest importance to the success of this vast enterprise." Impressed by his carpentry skills and frontier experience, they chose Gass to join the expedition. Lewis and Clark were extremely careful in their choice of volunteers, choosing only one from every hundred who applied. In 1792, Gass joined a company of rangers on the Virginia frontier and was a sergeant in the Army in Kaskaskia, Illinois when Lewis and Clark came looking for volunteers in the Fall of 1803. The Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition Online is sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Center for Great Plains Studies, the University of Nebraska Center for Digital Research in the Humanities, and University of Nebraska Press.Etching portrait of Patrick Gass Born on Jat Falling Springs, Pennsylvania, Gass was raised on the Pennsylvania frontier, moving with his family to Uniontown, Catfish Camp (now Washington, PA), and Mercersburg, where he learned carpentry. With a focus on full-text searchability and ease of navigation, the Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition Online is intended to be both a useful tool for scholars and an engaging website for the general public.
JOHN BOLEY LEWIS AND CLARK CORPS OF DISCOVERY PLUS
Also included are a gallery of images, important supplemental texts, and audio files of selected passages plus Native American perspectives.
JOHN BOLEY LEWIS AND CLARK CORPS OF DISCOVERY FULL
The site features the full text-almost five thousand pages-of the journals. Moulton's edition-the most accurate and inclusive edition ever published-is one of the major scholarly achievements of the late twentieth century. This website makes available the text of the celebrated Nebraska edition of the Lewis and Clark journals, edited by Gary E. Welcome to the Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition Online.