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Reviews
Encyclopedia of the Lewis & Clark Expedition
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Edited by Elin Woodger and Brandon Toropov, with a foreword by Ned Blackhawk
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Facts on File, Inc., New York, 2004. Illustrations, photographs, maps, bibliography, index. 464 pages. $70.00 cloth.
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Lewis & Clark Lexicon of Discovery
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By Alan H. Hartley
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Washington State University Press, Pullman, 2004. 192 pages. $24.95 paper.
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Reviewed by Doug Erickson
Lewis and Clark College, Portland, Oregon
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| Over the past fifty years, people have set out to define Lewis and Clark. Scholarship and popular literature has abounded as America has sought to interpret and relate to the Corps of Discovery. |
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Recently, two titles have been published that deal with the definition of Lewis and Clark in literal terms. The Encyclopedia of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, by Elin Woodger and Brandon Torpov, with a foreword by Ned Blackhawk, and Lewis & Clark Lexicon of Discovery, by Alan H. Hartley, have set out to define specific Lewis and Clark terminology found in the Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition and other related primary source material on the 1803–1806 expedition. From place-names to people to new species of birds, the authors have laid forth ambitious works of reference on a subject that some may say has been overly exposed and exploited. |
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In the Encyclopedia, the authors have created a nice text filled with images, quotes from the journals, and definitions including popular spellings, Latin terminology, birth and death dates, and other essential guides to information found in the journals. Also included are people who helped prepare for the expedition, such as Andrew Ellicott, Benjamin Rush, and Benjamin Smith Barton. Post-expedition men of importance such as Paul Allen, Nicholas Biddle, Alexander Wilson, and Frederick Bates also have well-rounded entries in the publication. |
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The Native peoples encountered by Lewis and Clark are represented with long entries on the tribes and tribal chiefs and well-written essays on their assistance of the expedition. Other entries on religion, sex during the expedition, and alcohol bring into the publication insights and observations on topics not usually defined in literature about the Corps of Discovery. These wonderful entries all lead readers down a literary path filled with defining moments in the American West. |
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While suggestions for further reading follow each entry, there seems to be a heavy reliance on a handful of titles — notably Stephen Ambrose's Undaunted Courage— to address a wide variety of subject matter. Ambrose is recognized by many as the author who has brought Lewis and Clark into the forefront of American popular culture, and he deserves recognition for this achievement. Undaunted Courage, however, is not the first place most scholars and researchers will look for further information on the many topics relating to the Lewis and Clark Expedition. |
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Lexicon takes the approach of "less is more." In defining criteria for this book, Hartley limits the information he provides to simple definitions, the term's location in the journals, and phonetic spellings. This format and the book's size and physical makeup suggest it will be a companion title for the journals and make it handy as a field guide. Other nice additions to this work are the Subject Guide and Spelling Variants found in the appendix. Lexicon is arranged like a dictionary, with very little visual material and small, poignant definitions. |
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Authors of both works introduce readers to the idea that these are not completely exhaustive bodies of work on Lewis and Clark, but some key entries are missing in both works. The absence of references to Lewis and Clark's traveling library leaves a void in the scholarship. While this has recently been a subject of scholarship, it is not without its own history. Donald Jackson and Paul Cutright — both noted scholars — have published on this subject over the past forty years, and a list of the traveling library is an important subject to include in all such compilations. Also, the absence of prominent reference to Elijah Criswell's seminal work, Linguistic Pioneers, is a glaring omission. Criswell's thesis set a standard that is still used as a lexicon of Jefferson's western explorers. |
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Both of these books deserve praise and recognition for their efforts to bring a vast amount of material on a subject as large as Lewis and Clark together in one volume. Each is prepared for different kinds of readers. Encyclopedia is a large-format desk reference that will serve the informational needs of researchers from secondary school to university. Lexicon will appeal to readers who are interested in a quick field guide to the vocabulary of the Corps of Discovery. |
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