Just as Capt. Meriwether Lewis and Lt. William Clark embarked 200 years ago on the Corps of Discovery to learn about the great American West, the University now is undertaking an intellectual journey to research and teach the history and development of the West that these two historic figures first brought to the American consciousness.
The Lewis and Clark Bicentennial Project is a multidisciplinary four-year endeavor begun in 2000 and funded by the President's Office. Its aim is to develop projects and classes to add a critical and analytical component that compliments the national commemoration beginning next year.
"The main charge is to use Lewis and Clark as an opportunity to study the American West that they did so much to explore 200 years ago," said Project Director Douglas Seefeldt.
The key to the connection between the University and the Lewis and Clark bicentennial is the University's beloved founder Thomas Jefferson, who was intrigued by the West in his vision for the United States in its early history.
Jefferson tried several times to explore the West in order to find a commerce route to the Pacific, but failed continually until Congress granted his request to fund Lewis and Clark's Corps of Discovery journey in 1803, Seefeldt said.
Over 20 University professors and graduate students from a wide range of disciplines and interests in the American West have participated in the project.
The first phase was a series of faculty and graduate student colloquiums over the course of the last academic year.The topics included "The North American Continent in the European/American Contest for Empire," "The Postfrontier West: Bureaucratic Revolution and Transformation" and "American Wests on Film."
These colloquiums led to the development of several classes that University students can take over the next two years. The first of these, "American Wests" is offered this fall and will be offered again next fall.
The class is an introductory-level survey class cross-referenced in the anthropology and history departments.
The class is team-taught by Seefeldt, history prof. Peter Onuf and anthropology prof. Jeffrey Hantman. Seefeldt said the class is called American Wests with an "s" because the class will cover many different perspectives of the West including those studied by participants in the colloquiums.
Hantman, who also directs the interdisciplinary archaeology program, said he teaches the class in order to share a "counter-narrative" to the traditional American or European perspective.
"The West is a real place where people did not need to be discovered," he said.
Hantman said he was initially drawn to the subject because of an interest in the conflicts between the myths and the realities about the West.
"I saw the pretty transparent conflict of an ideology of independence in the West even though the federal government had the biggest role there of any region," he said.
Hantman said the class is "providing many different perspectives on a region of America where the identity is contested."
As another example, he said the West is seen as a more rural-based society when in fact more people live in urban environments in the West than in comparison with the Eastern United States.
In addition to the introductory course, the project has sparked the creation of eight 100-700 level courses to be taught in either the spring of 2003 or 2004. These classes delve in depth into topics from the colloquiums.
Included in the curriculum this spring will be classes entitled the "Colorizations of the American West" in the anthropology department, "Literature of the West: The Literary Legacy of Lewis and Clark" in the English department and "How the West was Lost: 1850-1950" in the history department.
With the coming bicentennial, Seefeldt said these classes will provide an opportunity for faculty to "develop an interest in Lewis and Clark and then bring it back to the community of students."
A Digital History of Lewis and Clark
Another dimension of the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial Project is the creation of a digital history project in conjunction with the Virginia Center for Digital History.
The project, entitled "Encountering the West: The Changing Vision of Lewis, Clark, and Jefferson," is designed to connect the early prospects of the North American West, the context for the expedition and the attitudes and perceptions of Lewis, Clark and Thomas Jefferson.
"Encountering the West" will create an electronic archive of maps, letters, journals, warrants, material objects and published accounts in order to compile a "database to highlight several significant intellectual and physical encounters along the Lewis and Clark Trail," according to the project's Web site.
The project will center on the significance of "the role of Thomas Jefferson in the development of America's interest in the West," Seefeldt said.
He added that the project references how Lewis and Clark encountered and documented the West rather than "discovered" it. "They didn't discover anything -- they encountered new people and places," he said.
Seefeldt also is involving students in the creation of the digital history through an independent study class in the media studies department called "History and Digital Media." Students will learn about the process of creating digital histories while contributing to the site with projects on Virginia's influence on the journey.
"The focus of the whole project is to find how Jefferson's experience of Virginia influenced his views of what he expected to find out West," said Alicia Yaffe, a third-year media studies and Spanish major who is participating in the project.
Yaffe's group will document landmarks related to Lewis and Clark around Charlottesville such as Locust Hill, which was Lewis' family farm. She said learning about Lewis' background with animals and wildlife in the East will help us understand how he viewed the West on his journey.
Yaffe said she was interested in the project because of the opportunity to see how history can influence social opinion when represented in a computer form.
"History comes alive when it's presented visually," she added.
Mapping the Journey
The University's special collections is also participating in the bicentennial activities with a new exhibition of maps of the West that will be displayed in the McGregor Room at Alderman library from Nov. 11 through May 18.
The exhibit is entitled "Lewis and Clark: The Maps of Discovery, 1507
1814."
Heather Moore Riser, head of public services and special collections for University libraries, said one of the key pieces of the exhibit is an 1803 map by Aaron Arrowsmith, which shows the state of cartographic knowledge before the journey.
"The idea is to show the maps that Jefferson had at his disposal as they were planning the expedition before they took off," Riser said.
The Arrowsmith map can then be compared with the maps from Clark's journals published after the expedition, Riser added.
The library owns the maps so they will stay within special collections after the exhibition, but they will not remain part of a permanent exhibit. However, a coffee table book with all the maps displayed will be for sale throughout the exhibition.
A National Celebration
Charlottesville and Jefferson's connection to Lewis and Clark will be on national display when the four year national commemoration kicks off at Monticello and the University in a five day exposition between January 14-19, 2003.
"Jefferson's West: A Lewis and Clark Exposition" will include over 20 events and lectures at University venues by University professors and visiting scholars.
Also included are over 13 exhibitions around Charlottesville including a special traveling museum sponsored by the National Park Service, which features the past and present of people and cultures along the Lewis and Clark route. "Corps of Discovery II: 200 Years to the Future" will begin its journey in Charlottesville before traveling across the country over the next four years.
The centerpiece of the activities is the commencement of the National Lewis and Clark Bicentennial Commemoration at Monticello, which will take place on the West Lawn at Monticello on Jan. 18.
In a proclamation dated July 1, 2002, President George W. Bush, who has been invited to the Monticello event, designated 2003 through 2006 to be a national Lewis and Clark Bicentennial.
In his statement, Bush said, "As the commemoration of this journey begins in 2003, I encourage all Americans to celebrate the accomplishments of Lewis and Clark and to recognize their contributions to our history."
The National Council of the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial along with the Thomas Jefferson Foundation will sponsor the festival and inaugural commemoration. The event will be the first of 15 signature events the council will sponsor, taking place through 2006.
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