A Look West: University Libraries' Western Collection

Between 1804 and 1806, Lewis and Clark traveled to the Pacific Ocean and back, following the Missouri River, crossing the Rocky Mountains in Montana and Idaho, and continuing along the Snake and Columbia Rivers to the Pacific. Along the way, they kept journals and mapped the unknown American territory. The Archives and Rare Books Department has all of the major editions of their journals--from the first official and rare Biddle edition of 1814, to the definitive Moulton edition, as well as the first journal published, that of Patrick Gass in 1807. One of the great contributions of Lewis and Clark’s Expedition was Clark’s extraordinary map of the route, which included much of the area of the Northwest. Images of the plants and animals first identified by the explorers can be seen in the department’s rare books including the Flora Americae Septentrionalis of Frederick Pursh and Alexander Wilson’s American Ornithology.

Zebulon Montgomery Pike led two exploratory expeditions. In 1805-06, he unsuccessfully sought the source of the Mississippi River. In 1806-07 he explored the Southern Plains and Spanish territory, traveling up the Arkansas River to its headwaters in the Rocky Mountains where he was unsuccessful in climbing what came to be known as Pike’s Peak. Moving south toward the Red River, Pike and his party were intercepted by Spanish troops and aborted the expedition. His report incorporated maps that first delineated the areas of his excursions.
The principal expedition of Stephen Harriman Long covered the Central and Southern Plains. Leaving St. Louis in 1819, his party followed the Missouri and Platte Rivers to the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains. Long’s Peak near Boulder, CO, is named for him. He then moved south to what is now Colorado Springs and east along the Arkansas River. Long’s maps detailed much of the Plains area, but are best remembered for their labeling of the High Plains, “Great Desert.” The Long Expedition was further distinguished by including artists Samuel Seymour and Titian Ramsay Peale who provided some of the earliest, accurate images of the West.

In his first two expeditions (1842 and 1843-44), John Charles Fremont explored and mapped a great triangle, beginning in St. Louis, extending to Fort Vancouver near the mouth of the Columbia, and concluding south nearly to Los Angeles. Besides lithographs of scenes along the way, the contribution of Fremont’s work are the two great maps executed by Charles Preuss: one in seven parts delineating the Oregon Trail in 1843 and the other portraying the areas of Fremont’s explorations.

The surveys to find the best route for the Transcontinental Railroad were done in 1853-54 along the 32nd, 35th, 38th, and 49th parallels of latitude. The reports of the Pacific Railroad Surveys (1855-59), which together fill 13 volumes, contain not only maps, but an amazing collection of data on geography, plants and animals, and geology. They are illustrated by almost 300 lithographs of scenes by important 19th-century American artists including John Mix Stanley, Gustave Sohon, and Heinrich Balduin Mollhausen. They are a rich source of documentation on a vast array of Western topics.

In the 50 years between the Lewis and Clark Expedition and the Railroad Surveys, many of the cartographic blanks had been filled in and Western migration was underway. Publications resulting from these explorations are well represented in the Archives and Rare Books Department. University Libraries is undertaking projects to increase access to these materials. Currently, Western exploration materials are available for research and study in the Archives and Rare Books Department located in 808 Blegen Library. Look for an online presentation of the 1814 edition of the Lewis and Clark Journals on May 14, 2004, the day the Corps of Discovery set out from St. Louis.

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