Lewis and Clark Bicentennial Celebration -- An unpredictable river, an unknown wilderness and what author Stephen Ambrose called "Undaunted Courage," the story of the Lewis and Clark Expedition has fascinated people worldwide for 200 years. To help your audience better understand the magnitude and importance of their journey, use this guide for story ideas and expert sources from the University of Missouri-Columbia. Founded in 1839, MU is the first public university west of the Mississippi River and the first state university in Thomas Jefferson's Louisiana Purchase territory. For more information, contact the sources listed below. Also, consult the MU News Bureau's searchable experts guide and MU news on the World Wide Web at www.missouri.edu/~news.
IN THIS ISSUE:
World Premiere of Original Lewis and Clark Musical Drama at Missouri Theatre in May
Lewis and Clark Traveled Slow Road to Public Fame
Web site Showcases Maps Reconstructing Expedition's Journey Up the Missouri River
"The Two Most Famous Travelers" Before Lewis and Clark
The Music of the Lewis and Clark Era
Artist Etching Lewis and Clark Journey _______________________________________________________
World Premiere of Original Lewis and Clark Musical Drama at Missouri Theatre in May
"Corps of Discovery: A Musical Journey," performed by the MU Show-Me Opera vocalists and instrumentalists, explores the adventures of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, whose expedition across a young nation shaped the future of America. This story of adventure, romance, tragedy and mystery is produced by the University of Missouri-Columbia's School of Music. On Friday, May 2, the world premiere of the original musical drama will be performed at the Missouri Theatre in Columbia, Mo.
MU students, faculty and alumni comprise the 60 performers. The troupe recently presented highlights of all three acts at New York City's York Theatre. They previously performed Act I of the musical drama at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center.
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Lewis and Clark Traveled Slow Road to Public Fame
Across America, William Clark and Meriwether Lewis are national heroes, having braved the untamed and unknown wilderness 200 years ago. They paved the way for settlers to change the face of our country. However, MU journalism professor Betty Houchin Winfield found that until the end of the nineteenth century, history books ignored the contribution and scientific findings of the expedition and the Corps of Discovery members.
In her recently published book chapter "Public Perceptions of the Expedition" in Lewis & Clark: Journey to Another America, Winfield questions how the public even knew about the expedition. The exploration occurred before the telegraph, Associated Press, radio, television, satellite and Internet. In 1806, St. Louis didn't have a newspaper and no reporter traveled with the expedition, Winfield said.
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Website Showcases Maps Reconstructing Expedition's Journey Up the Missouri River
The current Missouri River is dramatically different than the river Lewis and Clark experienced in the early 1800s. Jim Harlan, assistant program director of the Geographic Resources Center at University of Missouri-Columbia, combines information from the journals of Lewis and Clark Expedition members with information from surveyor field notes from the U.S. General Land Office and pre-U.S. French and Spanish surveys to recreate a historic view of a 36-mile corridor along the Missouri River.
Maps of Lewis and Clark in Missouri and other information about the Corps of Discovery Expedition can be found at the Geographic Resources Center's Web site: http://lewisclark.geog.missouri.edu/index.shtml
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"The Two Most Famous Travelers" Before Lewis and Clark
Raymond Wood, emeritus professor of anthropology at the University of Missouri-Columbia, is a distinguished historian and archeologist of the northern plains. He is an expert in the prehistory and cultures of the Great Plains, as well as early Missouri history. Wood recently published Prologue to Lewis and Clark, a volume that culminates more than 30 years of his research on early explorations of the Louisiana Territory. Prologue documents the Mackay and Evans expedition of 1795 to 1797, the most significant expedition of the Missouri River basin prior to Lewis and Clark.
With one exception, the mission of the Mackay and Evans expedition was the same as that of Lewis and Clark: establish relations with Indian tribes and find a continental route to the Pacific Ocean. Although the expedition failed, the explorers brought back maps and other important information that was invaluable to Lewis and Clark in the early stages of their expedition.
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The Music of the Lewis and Clark Era
The Lewis and Clark expedition, which began the journey up the Missouri River in May 1804, included two men whose fiddle playing contributed to the morale among corps members and established good relations with the Native Americans. Howard Marshall, professor emeritus of MU's art history and archeology department, recently created a CD, "Fiddle Tunes of the Lewis & Clark Era." Marshall believes the music and dancing of the corps became a helpful ingredient in negotiating with tribes.
"Many of these tunes, like Soldier's Joy and Leather Britches, are played today by fiddlers across the U.S. and Canada," Marshall said. "Some, like Pop Goes the Weasel and Yankee Doodle, are well-known, but others, such as The White Cockade and Sir Roger de Coverly, have faded and were brought out of retirement for this CD."
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Artist Etching Lewis & Clark Journey
MU art professor Brooke Cameron is creating an etching collection of landscapes from the Lewis and Clark journey. This project, which will include views of most of the Corps of Discovery route through Missouri, will portray the land and water that welcomed Lewis and Clark. For interest, she is adding some of the explorers' own sketches to each piece.
Etchings are multiple originals, each hand-printed, signed and numbered by the artist. When Cameron begins with a design, she works through a coating onto a metal plate. She exposes that plate to acid that eats into the metal and holds the ink.
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