BGuthrie Photos: WV -- Harpers Ferry NHP -- Exhibit: Meriwether Lewis at Harpers Ferry

WV -- Harpers Ferry NHP -- Exhibit: Meriwether Lewis at Harpers Ferry:

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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. HARPML_120408_05.JPG: The Object of Your Mission: Your country has just doubled in size and the president has chosen you to lead a group of explorers through this new, uncharted territory. Everything depends on your ability to plan carefully for this important mission. Your journey will take years. You will travel thousands of miles. The supplies you take could be the difference between life and death. Where is the best place to get what you need for this incredible journey? If the year is 1803 and your name is Meriwether Lewis, Harpers Ferry, Virginia, is that place. President Thomas Jefferson hoped to find a water course from the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean. He convinced Congress to pay for the expedition to map the new territory. As President Jefferson's private secretary, Meriwether Lewis was trusted to lead the Corps of Discovery. He shared the President's vision, thirst for knowledge, and sense of adventure. This engraving by J. Jeakes shows what Harpers Ferry looked like about the time that Lewis arrived in 1803. The Armony and Arsenal at Harpers Ferry had only existed a short time when Captain Lewis came to gather his supplies. The Armory, where guns and gun parts were made, is on the left. The Arsenal, where weapons were stored, is shown in the square. "The object of your mission is to explore the Missouri river, & such principal stream of it, as, by it's course and communication with the waters of the Pacific Ocean, whether the Columbia, Oregan, Colorado or any other river may offer the most direct & practicable water communication across this continent for the purposes of commerce." -- President Jefferson's instructions to Captain Lewis, June 20, 1803
2. HARPML_120408_06.JPG: Why Harpers Ferry? Leaving President Jefferson and the nation's capital behind, Meriwether Lewis wasted no time traveling to the United States Armory and Arsenal at Harpers Ferry to prepare for the remarkable journey west. He didn't have much time to gather his supplies and head west on the Ohio River before low water slowed him down. Lewis knew that Harpers Ferry was not only close to Washington, but also had the waterpower, the iron ore, the craftsmen and the tools to make the supplies he would depend on. The men working at Harpers Ferry in 1803 were skilled craftsmen. The work of firearms production was divided into barrel making, lock forging, filing of locks, brazing, stocking and finishing work. Local supplies of wood and iron ore were used in gun production at the Harpers Ferry Armory. Secretary of War Henry Dearborn sent orders to Armory Superintendent Perkins at Harpers Ferry to provide assistance to Captain Lewis. The War Department directed the Armory to supply the expedition with weapons, spare parts and tools. A copy of the orders from Secretary of War Dearborn to Harpers Ferry Armory Superintendent Perkins.
3. HARPML_120408_14.JPG: Preparing for the Unexpected: Meriwether Lewis and his men were headed for lands unknown to them. The west was a wilderness to almost everyone except the American Indians who lived there, so Lewis had to bring everything he needed or plan to do without. Somehow, Lewis had to prepare for the unexpected -- new people, new languages, new places and unknown dangers. The Armory and Arsenal at Harpers Ferry supplied critical items: rifles for 15 men, pipe tomahawks, knives, tools, spare gun parts, a specially designed boat and gifts for American Indians. "My detention at Harper's Ferry was unavoidable for one month, a period much greater than could reasonably have been calculated on; my greatest difficulty was the frame of the canoe which could not be completed without my personal attention... experiment was necessary also to determine its dimensions. I therefore resolved to give it a fair trial and accordingly prepared two sections of it with the same materials of which they must of necessity be composed when completed for service on my voyage." -- Meriwether Lewis, to President Thomas Jefferson on April 20, 1803 Diplomatic Gifts: President Jefferson asked Lewis to build friendly relationships with the American Indian tribes that he met. Tribal chiefs expected to be offered gifts. Lewis got knives and pipe tomahawks at Harpers Ferry to give as gifts. Lewis relied on the gunsmiths at the Harpers Ferry Armory to prepare and refit rifles and gun parts necessary for the expedition. Pipe tomahawks, similar to this one, were popular gifts with the tribes along the Missouri River. From March 16 to April 18, 1803, Captain Lewis with the armory gunsmiths at Harpers Ferry to prepare supplies. One of his special projects was to make a collapsible boat frame. He planned to use the boat when the crew needed to pass the Great Falls of the Missouri River. Meriwether Lewis made a final visit to Harpers Ferry on July 7 & 8, 1803 to inspect the supplies that had been prepared for his journey.
4. HARPML_120408_26.JPG: Representative Listing of Meriwether Lewis's Harpers Ferry Acquisitions: (1) 40 Fish Gigs with a Single Barb Point (2) 36 Pipe Tomahawks "for Indian presents" (3) 24 Pipe Tomahawks (4) 24 Large Knives (5) 15 Rifles (6) 15 Powder Horns and Pouches (7) 15 Pairs of Bullet Molds (8) 15 Wipers of Gun Worms (9) 15 Ball Screws (10) 15 Gun Slings (11) 1 Small Grindstone (12) 1 Collapsible Iron Frame Boat (13) Extra Parts of Locks (14) Tools for Repairing Arms Meriwether Lewis obtained many critical supplies here at Harpers Ferry. He supervised their preparation between mid-March and mid-April 1803. He returned on July 7, 1803, to make a final inspection before the items were transported to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The supplies from Harpers Ferry were instrumental in the success of the Lewis & Clark Expedition.
5. HARPML_120408_29.JPG: Records of the Adventure: Some members of the expedition kept journals as they made their way across the continent. Jefferson had given specific instructions to record what they saw. Thanks to these journals, we know a great deal about their journey. This is one of Captain William Clark's journals. "Your observations are to be taken with great pains & accuracy, to be entered legibly for others as well as yourself..." -- President Jefferson's instructions to Captain Lewis, June 20, 1803 William Clark was retired from the Army and living in Louisville, Kentucky art the time that Captain Lewis was preparing for the expedition. Although less schooled than Lewis, Clark was a skilled surveyor. "If therefore there is anything under those circumstances, in this enterprise, which would induce you to participate with me in it's fatiegues, it's dangers and it's honors, believe me there is no man on earth with whom I should feel equal pleasure in sharing them as with yourself." -- Captain Lewis to William Clark, June 19, 1803
6. HARPML_120408_34.JPG: "The Experiment" Lewis spent much of his time at Harpers Ferry working on a boat design which he believed to be quite clever. it was light enough to transport and could be easily carried by his crew when assembled. He was sure it could carry almost 8,000 pounds. Although Lewis wrote a description of the dimensions of the boat, there are no known drawings of the craft. Artists have used his description to illustrate what the boat might have looked like. Testing "The Experiment": The boat frame was finally put to use two years after its design. On June 21, 1805, the crew began assembling the frame and preparing animal hides to cover it. Lewis needed the sap from pine trees to seal the outside of the canoe, but none could be found at their location. After several days, the canoe was covered and prepared with a substitute sealer of charcoal, beeswax, and buffalo tallow. When put into the water "the experiment" floated "like a perfect cork," but then began to leak. Sadly disappointed, Lewis knew that they did not have the time to start over. The boat was buried along with "some papers and a few other trivial articles..." "We call her The Experiment and expect she will answer our purpose." -- Patrick Gass, July 8, 1805 "I therefore relinquished all further hope of my favorite boat and ordered her sunk in the water, that the skins might become soft in order to take her to pieces tomorrow and deposit the frame at this place as it could probably be of no further service to us. It was too late to introduce a remedy and I bid adieu to my boat and her expected services." -- Captain Lewis, journal entry on July 9, 1805 "Clark ground and prepared their axes and adds [adz] this evening in order to prepare for an early departure in the morning. We have on this as well as on many former occasions found a small grindstone which I brought with me from Harper's ferry extreemly convenient to us." -- From Lewis' journal entry on Tuesday, July 9, 1805 Sometimes the simplest of tools can be the most helpful. At about the same time that Lewis' experimental boat design sank, he noted how useful the grindstone from Harpers Ferry had been during the entire trip. These iron pieces represent a cross section of the iron frame boat made by the craftsmen at the Harpers Ferry Armory. Fully assembled the boat was twenty-six inches deep, four feet ten inches wide, and thirty-six feet long.
7. HARPML_120408_46.JPG: Supplied for Survival: What is the most important item Meriwether Lewis got at Harpers Ferry? Te special boat? The gifts for the American Indians? The rifles? The expedition journals reveal that without the Harpers Ferry supplies it would have been impossible to complete the mission or even survive. All the supplies chosen by Lewis were important, but the rifles proved absolutely vital. Hunting for wild game saved the men from starvation. Their weapons also protected them from enemy threats and fierce attacks by grizzly bears.
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Same Subject: Click on this link to see coverage of items having the same subject: [(NPS) Harpers Ferry Natl Historic Park] [Display ALL (NPS) Harpers Ferry Natl Historic Park photos] [Civil War] [Park (National Park Service)]
2012 photos: Trips this year: three Civil War Trust conferences (Shepherdstown, WV, Richmond, VA, and Williamsburg, VA), a week-long family reunion cruise of the Caribbean, another week-long family reunion in the Wisconsin Dells (with lots of in-transit time in Ohio and Indiana), and my 7th consecutive San Diego Comic-Con trip (including side trips to Zion, Bryce, the Grand Canyon, etc). Ego strokes: I had a picture of Miss DC, Ashley Boalch, published in the Washington Post. I had a photograph of the George Segal San Francisco Holocaust memorial used as the cover of Quebec Francais (issue 165). Not being able to read French, I'm not entirely sure what the article is about but, hey! And I guess what could be considered to be a positive thing, my site is now established enough that spammers have noticed it and I had to block 17,000 file description postings for Viagra and whatever else.. Equipment this year: My mainstays were the Fuji S100fs, Nikon D7000, and the new Fuji X-S1. I also used an underwater Fuji XP50 and a Nikon D600. The first three cameras all broke this year and had to be repaired. Number of photos taken this year: just below 410,000.
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