Question

Lewis and Clark’s Expedition paved the way for westward expansion. The Expedition’s diversity contributed to its success. Write a discussion in which you discuss the Lewis and Clark’s Expedition. Explain how the United States acquired the Louisiana Purchase. Discuss the various members and the contributions they brought to the Expedition. What were the goals of the Expedition, and was it successful? As always, be sure to address who, what, when, where, and why an event or a person was important. Be sure to include specific details.

Answer 1

Though largely ignored for almost a century, the Lewis and Clark expedition began to take on new meaning and attract new attention in the late 1890s. In the process, this neglected historical subject was transformed into an epic quest that has never since lost its central place in the nation's collective memory. The expedition has become an origin story of the first order that invariably portrays Lewis and Clark as prophets of the future, as if the history of national development were a natural occurrence and the two explorers simply on a journey into the future—with each group of commemorators as their chosen destination.

Lewis and Clark, and Sacagawea even more than the coleaders, were honored in the first decades of the twentieth century with the publication of several books about the expedition, a new edition of the journals, the holding of a successful exposition, and the placement of numerous statues and monuments throughout the country. In every instance, the expedition was celebrated as the foremost symbol of a new century's faith in material progress and overseas empire. By mid-century, the desire to commemorate the expedition with monuments and celebrations was replaced by an increased fascination with the expedition route itself. “The Trail” became a sort of national pilgrimage route, a development that reflected the rise in automobility, along with postwar prosperity and a growing middle-class interest in outdoor recreation. Lewis and Clark's ability to capture the spirit of every age that sought to commemorate them also made the expedition a powerful symbol for critiquing the values it represents. For this reason, the expedition has also served as the subject for potent counter narratives about American progress and development. The three essays in this section speak to these issues in various ways, but all remind us of how memories of Lewis and Clark have often taken on more significance than the expedition itself—and in the process have a great deal to tell us about the way national identity is defined and contested.