Lewis & Clark: Maps of Exploration 1507-1814

In 1995 the University of Virginia Library produced the exhibition and accompanying catalogue Exploring the West from Monticello: A Perspective in Maps from Columbus to Lewis and Clark. Over the years, the catalogue, the web site, and, indeed, the very subject of Lewis and Clark have remained so popular that, as the bicentennial approached, the Library wanted to be involved in the celebration. In 1999, University of Virginia President John Casteen appointed a committee of academics from around the University to commemorate the Lewis and Clark bicentennial. [...] The Library, for its part in the University celebration, is remounting the Lewis and Clark exhibition and republishing the catalogue. [...] Lewis and Clark: The Maps of Exploration 1507-1814 reflects a re-envisioning of the original exhibition and catalogue. We have added some new items that were acquired since the first exhibition and we have omitted a section on navigational instruments that was in the original version. In 1995, when digital technology was in its infancy, we used black and white photographs of the maps in the catalog and on the web site. We have now re-imaged all of the maps using state-of-the-art digital technology and have used these images both in this newly designed web site and in the book Lewis and Clark: The Maps of Exploration 1507-1814. Our online visitors now are able to study and zoom in on the maps in full-color detail. [...] While sections I and II show the early maps of America from a European perspective, section III, Albemarle Adventurers", explores the contributions made to western exploration by the Virginia gentry that included the families of Thomas Jefferson and Meriwether Lewis. Fifty years before Lewis and Clark set off on their expedition, a group of Albemarle County residents who were personally and intellectually related to Thomas Jefferson and Meriwether Lewis planned an expedition to the West via the Missouri River. Section IV presents the maps used in the planning of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. The items reveal the state of cartographic knowledge of the West up to the time Meriwether Lewis set off from Pittsburgh in 1803. This section also chronicles the explorations that inspired the Lewis and Clark Expedition and the further refinement of geographic theories of North America. An 1810 manuscript map by William Clark and the journals of the expedition—the two-volume History of the Expedition under the Command of Captains Lewis and Clark—indicate the results of the expedition." [self-description]
Publisher
Hosting / Distributor

Albert H. and Shirley Small Special Collections Library - University of Virginia: Charlottesville, US (VA) <http://www.lib.virginia.edu/speccol/>

Language

Country

United States

Editors Information
Published on
23.06.2024
Contributor
Thomas Meyer
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