The National Bicentennial Exhibition

Lewis & Clark

This is not about Egypt, nor about the Near East, but we cannot ignore a great exhibition and its wonderful online companion site about the two famous explorers that make the history of explorations.

Missouri Historical Society Announces Lewis & Clark: The National Bicentennial Exhibition

ST. LOUIS, July 3, 2002 – In 1804, Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark led the U. S. Army “Corps of Discovery” from St. Louis up the Missouri River into the vast, newly acquired Louisiana Territory. Following instructions from President Thomas Jefferson, their aim was to become the first Americans to traverse North America to the Pacific via an imagined water route. Along the way, they were to map the continent’s interior, collect plant, mineral, and animal specimens for science, and, most significantly, develop relationships with diverse tribes of American Indians.

In 2004, the Missouri Historical Society will mark the bicentennial of Lewis and Clark’s transcontinental journey of exploration with the opening of Lewis & Clark: The National Bicentennial Exhibition. The exceptional new exhibition, organized by the Missouri Historical Society, will open at the Missouri History Museum in Forest Park, St. Louis, Missouri in January 14, 2004 and will be on view through September 6, 2004. The exhibition will then launch a national tour. Lewis & Clark: The National Bicentennial Exhibition is presented in St. Louis through the generous support of Emerson. Additional support provided by the U.S. Congress through the National Park Service, the State of Missouri through the Missouri Lewis and Clark Bicentennial Commission, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

To announce the national bicentennial exhibition, President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush have invited the Missouri Historical Society to display a portrait of Meriwether Lewis at the White House. The chalk and charcoal portrait, done by Charles Balthazar Julien Fevret de Saint-Mémin (1770-1852), shows the profile of a 29 year-old Lewis wearing a high-collared coat, notched collar and white shirt. At the time Lewis sat for this portrait, he was serving as President Thomas Jefferson’s secretary. According to Lewis family tradition, Lewis sat for the portrait in 1803 and sent it to his mother prior to setting off on the transcontinental expedition. The Lewis family donated the portrait to the Missouri Historical Society in 1936. The recently conserved portrait will be unveiled on July 3, 2002. The date marks the 200th anniversary of the day President Thomas Jefferson received official word that the Louisiana Purchase treaty had been signed. The portrait of Lewis will remain at the White House until it returns to the Missouri Historical Society in preparation for the opening of Lewis & Clark: The National Bicentennial Exhibition.

Explore the cultural landascape of North America with the corps of discovery

This award-winning online exhibition invites visitors to ask new questions about a familiar story. Instead of interpreting the journey of Lewis and Clark as an encounter with the natural world, it focuses on the human landscape – the often overlooked social and cultural geographies that Lewis and Clark traversed. Visitors can explore the story in multiple formats, from a geographic and chronological perspective to a thematically-based examination of cultural issues to a deep collection of primary artifacts.