Please note this program has different ticket options. The member + book and nonmember + book price will include a copy of The Essential Lewis and Clark.
In the first of several programs on great expeditions and their leaders, Landon Jones introduces us to Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. The two led their Corps of Discovery on the most momentous expedition in American history.
The Lewis and Clark expedition was commissioned by President Thomas Jefferson shortly before the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. The perilous journey lasted from May 1804 to September 1806. The primary objective was to explore and map the newly acquired territory, find a practical route across the western half of the continent, and establish an American presence in the territory before Britain and other European powers could lay claim. The campaign's secondary objectives were scientific and economic: to study the area's plants, animal life, and geography, and establish trade with local Indian tribes.
The Lewis and Clark expedition remains one of the great adventure stories of all time.
Jones is author of William Clark and the Shaping of the West, a biography of William Clark. He also edited The Essential Lewis and Clark, a selection of the journals of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, which remain among the most important documents in the history of American exploration. Through them we meet Native peoples and see the Great Plains, the Rocky Mountains, and western rivers the way Lewis and Clark first observed them—majestic, pristine, uncharted, and awe-inspiring.
Part of the Uncharted Territory: Great Expeditions and the Trailblazers Who Led Them program series.
