Lewis and Clark and the Indian Country presents a familiar subject in an unfamiliar setting. It is inspired by the bicentennial of the expedition of the Corps of Discovery, the three-year mission launched by President Thomas Jefferson to explore the newly purchased Louisiana Territory. A milestone in the history of American exploration, the journey was also a major event in the ten thousand-year history of Native peoples in North America. Based on an exhibition originally mounted at the Newberry Library, this virtual exhibition gives visual and textual context to this famous expedition while emphasizing the challenges and complexities that surrounded western expansion.
Lewis and Clark and the Indian Countryis made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, The Sara Lee Foundation, and Ruth C. Ruggles. Additional support for the exhibition and related public programming has been received from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the National Park Service’s Lewis and Clark Challenge Cost-share grant program.