New in January 2009

irst among this month's features is Awakening the Bear, a five-part essay by Castle McLaughlin, Associate Curator of Native American Ethnography at Harvard's Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology. It is a fascinating mystery story of a necklace made of grizzly-bear claws that an unidentified Indian gave to Lewis and Clark, a priceless gift that was "lost" for nearly two hundred years.

All the evidence they could muster convinced Lewis and Clark that they had identified a new species of eagle. They were wrong, but their mistake was excusable. It took another couple of decades before ornithologists could agree that in North America there were only Two Eagles.

Recent Additions

ewis and Clark College (Portland, OR) archivist Doug Erickson's essay on The Persistence of the Lewis & Clark Story in 19th-Century American Literature, includes discussions of early accounts of the expedition; writings by naturalists such as Wilson and Audubon; fiction by Irving and Poe; and Lewis and Clark stories for children and youths.

More Portraits of William Clark now includes, in addition to Charles Willson Peale's well-known oil painting, images by artists John Wesley Jarvis, Chester Harding, and sculptor William Partridge, as well as a rare engraving owned by a Peyton C. "Bud" Clark, a direct descendant of the General.

All 111 pages of Discovering Lewis & Clark from the Air, featuring photos by photographer Jim Wark, have been revised to include links to other pages in the site, and some have been expanded with new content — such as "A Froth of Feathers" and "The Musselshell River".

A page on "The Judith River" has been added to Missouri River Scenes, featuring an aerial view of its confluence with the Missouri.

Two pages have been enhanced with recently acquired graphic elements: "Hell's Gate," and "Bull Boats."

Botanist and photographer H. Wayne Phillips, author of Plants of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, published in 2003 by Mountain Press, has donated his entire collection of more than 300 photos of botanical specimens and habitats for use in Discovering Lewis & Clark®. The first of many examples to appear is his eye-level view of the mouth of Portage Creek, accompanying Jim Wark's aerial view of the Lower Portage Camp site.

We continue to welcome not only corrections of facts but also serious discussions of any topics, new or old, that appear in Discovering Lewis & Clark®. For an example of the way in which we accommodate extended comments, see "Adding it Up."

Getting Around...

here are a number of ways to navigate Discovering Lewis & Clark®. You can explore most of the contents through links from Prof. Harry W. Fritz's synopsis, Lewis & Clark-- A Western Adventure, A National Epic . Alternatively, you can navigate via the the "Discovery Paths" and "Journal Excerpts" menus in the navigation frame at left.

Use the Search utility to find pages about specific topics, or browse the Table of Contents, which lists all the pages in the site.