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Introduction
About Karl Bodmer
Unknown Interior &
French Louisiana
Louisiana Purchase
Journeying &
Wintering
Continental Divide, the
Pacific, & the Return
Reports & Successors
References
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Hunting the Buffalo ,
I
"Hunting the Buffalo,"
from Thomas L. M’Kenney, 1785-1859, and James
Hall, 1793-1868.History of the Indian Tribes of North
America . . .with 120 portraits from the Indian Gallery in the Department of
War. 3 vols., octavo.
Philadelphia: Rice and Hart, 1855. Blind-stamped
morocco. Gift of Mrs. J. Henry Fair.
To a great extent, the expedition lived, not on
supplies it brought with it, but on meat from hunting along the journey.
Deer, antelope and buffalo all provided such supplies. Lewis was amazed by the size of buffalo herds
("above 3000"), and in a journal entry for May 1805 gives a detailed account of
the methods by which Indians hunted them. For another image of Buffalo on
Upper Missouri, see the illustrations by Bodmer in Island I.
The American Badger
John James
Audubon, 1785-1851,
"Pl. XLVII: American Badger," in Audubon and John Bachman, The quadrupeds
of North America.
3 vols., octavo.
New York: V. G. Audubon,
1851-54. Full morocco gilt. John Shaw Billings Collection.
The scientific purpose of the expedition led
Lewis and Clarke to record each new animal or bird they encountered. On July
20, 1803, Clark recorded that: "Joseph Fields Killed and brought in an Anamale
Called by the French Brarow and by the Panies Cho car tooch . . . He is of the
Bear species," while one of his subordinates asserted that this species of
badger "never was seen by any of the company before."
The American Beaver
John James Audubon, 1785-1851,
"Pl. XLVI: The American Beaver," in Audubon and John Bachman, The quadrupeds
of North America. 3 vols., octavo.
New York: V. G. Audubon,
1851-54. Contemporary half morocco
The expedition first encountered beavers early
the following spring, when they left camp to resume their journey and fell in
with three French fur-hunters: "the beaver these people have already taken is by
far the best I have ever seen" (April 10, 1805). By 1806, the explorers
were themselves hunting for beavers, for medicinal purposes.
The First
Winter: at the Mandan Village
Catlin, George,
1796-1872.
Plates
47, 48: the Mandan Village, in his
Letters
and notes on the manners, customs, and condition of the North American Indians.
Written during eight years' travel amongst
the wildest tribes . . . . With four hundred illustrations from the author's
original paintings. 3rd ed. 2 vols. London: for the Author by Tilt
and Bogue, 1842. Original half calf. John Shaw Billings Collection.
By late October 1804, the expedition had reached
what is now North Dakota, and built a log fort in which to spend the winter,
near two villages of the Mandan people (‘Fort Mandan’). They remained
there till April 7, the next year, when they sent the larger keel-boat, now too
deep for the rivers, back downstream with a small detachment to take dispatches
to Jefferson. The remainder of the expedition pressed on upstream in the
smaller pirogues and canoes.
Winter on the Upper Missouri
Karl Bodmer, "Fort Clark on the Missouri (February 1834),"
Plate 15, from Maximilian, Prince of Wied, Travels in
the interior of North America. . . . London: Ackermann, 1843.
Fort Clark, named for the co-leader of the Corps
of Discovery, was very near the Mandan village where Lewis and Clark spent
the winter of 1804-1805 building their own Fort Mandan.
The Visit of a Pawnee Chief
"Pes-Ke-Le-Cha-Co, A Pawnee Chief" from Thomas L. M’Kenney, 1785-1859, and James
Hall, 1793-1868.
History of the Indian Tribes of North
America . . .with 120 portraits from the Indian Gallery in the Department of
War. 3 vols., octavo.
Philadelphia: Rice and Hart, 1855. Blind-stamped
morocco. Gift of Mrs. J. Henry Fair.
While the Corps members were still building
their winter quarters at Fort Mandan, they were visited by several Indians,
including "a Chief Half Pania [Pawnee]" who "came & brought a side of Buffalow .
. . he crossed the river in the Buffalow Skin Canoo" (November 10, 1804).
Indian Life: A Mandan Cabin
Karl Bodmer, "The Interior of the Hut of a Mandan Chief,"
Plate 19, from Maximilian, Prince of Wied, Travels in
the interior of North America. . . .
London: Ackermann, 1843.
The five months that Lewis and Clark spent at
Fort Mandan also gave them their first, and most extended, exposure to native
American life and culture.
 Indian
Life: Mandan Indians
Karl Bodmer, "Mandan Indians," Plate 20, from Maximilian, Prince of Wied, Travels in
the interior of North America. . . . London: Ackermann, 1843.
Indian Life: Dog-Sledges of the Mandan
Indians
Karl Bodmer, "Dog-Sledges of the Mandan
Indians,"
Vig. XXIX, from Maximilian, Prince of Wied, Travels in
the interior of North America. . . .
London: Ackermann, 1843.
The Importance of the Buffalo in Indian Life
 Karl Bodmer, "Bison-Dance of the Mandan Indians," Plate 18, from Maximilian, Prince of Wied, Travels in
the interior of North America. . . .
London: Ackermann, 1843.
The successful hunting of bison or buffalo
provided the main food supply for the Mandans, as for Lewis and Clark’s Corps of
Discovery.
Dance of the Mandan Women
Karl Bodmer, "Dance of the Mandan Women,"
Vig. XXVIII, from Maximilian, Prince of Wied, Travels in
the interior of North America. . . .
London: Ackermann, 1843.
Danger and the Grizzly Bear
 John James Audubon, 1785-1851,
"Pl. CXXXI: Grizzly Bear,"
in Audubon and John Bachman, The quadrupeds
of North America.
3 vols., octavo.
New York: V. G. Audubon,
1851-54. Contemporary half morocco
As they set out on their second summer, tackling
the upper reaches of the Missouri basin, Lewis and his fellows were amazed
at the weight and resilience of the grizzly bear, as compared with the black
bear; "it is a much more furious and formidable animal, and will frequently
pursue the hunter when wounded" (Lewis, April 29, 1805).
Hunting of the Grizzly
Bear
Karl Bodmer, "Hunting of the Grizzly Bear," Plate
36, from Maximilian, Prince of Wied, Travels in
the interior of North America. . . .
London: Ackermann, 1843.
Later, Lewis himself, having just fired his gun at
a buffalo, found himself being chased by a grizzly while he was still 300 yards from the
nearest tree: "I ran about 80 yards and found he gained on me . . . the idea struk me to get into the water . . . he suddenly wheeled about as if frightened,
declined to combat . . . and retreated" (June 14, 1805).
Landscape of the Upper
Missouri
Karl Bodmer, "Remarkable Hills on the Upper
Missouri," Plate 34, from Maximilian, Prince of Wied, Travels in the
interior of North America. . .
London: Ackermann, 1843.
The strange formations shown here from Bodmer's
illustrations had previously been described by Lewis, in his journal entry for
May 31, 1805: "The hills and river Clifts which we passed today exhibit a most
romantic appearance . . . which with the help of a little imagination and an
oblique view, at a distance are made to represent eligant ranges of lofty
freestone buildings. . . As we passed it seemed as if those seens of visionary
inchantments would never have an end."
 Jefferson and Lewis Make an Interim Report
Travels in the interior parts of America;
communicating discoveries made in exploring the Missouri, Red River and Washita,
by Captains Lewis and Clark, . . . As laid before the Senate, by the President
of the United States in February, 1806, and never before published in Great
Britain.
London: Phillips, 1807. Green half-calf.
Bookplate of Alfred Chapin Rogers.
Before leaving Fort Mandan in April 1805, Lewis
sent Jefferson a confident report on his progress so far ("We do not calculate
on completing our voyage within the present year . . . You may therefore expect
me to meet you at Montachello in September 1806"). Jefferson added a
cover-letter (dated February 19, 1806) and had it printed (with additional
material from others) as a Presidential message to Congress.
Jefferson’s 1806 Message to Congress
The travels of Capts. Lewis and
Clarke from St. Louis, by way of the Missouri
and Columbia rivers, to the Pacific ocean; performed in the years 1804, 1805 &
1806, by order of the government of the United States. . . . from the official
communication of Meriwether Lewis.
London: Printed for Longman, Hurst, Rees, and
Orme, 1809. Modern half morocco,, by Sangorski and Sutcliffe. Bookplate of
Alfred Chapin Rogers.
As this 1809 reprinting shows, the interim report
and Jefferson's 1806 message continued to be
reprinted even after the expedition returned, while book-buyers waited for
publication of Lewis’s official narrative.
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