Lewis, Clark exhibition opens in D.C.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – An exhibition honoring the famed explorers Lewis and Clark opens today, completing a tour that crossed from coast to coast, like the men it celebrates.

Meriwether Lewis and William Clark were dispatched by President Thomas Jefferson in 1804 to explore the newly acquired Louisiana Territory, an effort that brought them to the Pacific Coast.

The exhibit commemorating their quest completes its journey at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History.

Like Lewis and Clark, the artifacts began their travels in St. Louis. Other stops before Washington included Portland, Denver and Philadelphia. Including some 400 artifacts that illustrate the activities and encounters of the explorers, the exhibit will remain open through Sept. 10.

Among the items included are:

“A pocket compass made by Philadelphia instrument maker Thomas Whitney and carried by Lewis. It has a mahogany box, a silver-plated brass rim that is graduated to degrees and numbered in quadrants from north and south, a paper dial, two small brass sight vanes and a leather carrying case.

“Early knife with a sheath covered with whole bird quills. A type used by both the Santee and the Missouri Valley Sioux.

“Quiver of a type used by the Yankton Sioux, whom Clark described as armed mainly with bows and arrows “and verry much deckerated with porcupine quills.”

“Bear claw necklace. Lewis wrote that “the warriors or such as esteem themselves brave men” wore necklaces of grizzly bear claws.

“It is esteemed by them an act of equal celebrity the killing one of these bear or an enemy.”