Lewis & Clark Trip 5A (8/4/2021)

Wednesday, August 4, 2021

We shall now follow up on the specimens that Meriwether Lewis and William Clark sent back from the Corps of Discovery Expedition of 1803-1806. 

*On 8/12/1805, the shipment (from the keelboat sent back to St Louis) arrived at the President's House/White House. The shipment included natural history and and indigenous artifacts. President Jefferson forwarded many items to the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia, but also sent many boxes and crates to his home, Monticello, in Virginia.*

Although many of the specimens never made it back to the East Coast, there are a few we can track down.

But first:

Ladysmith, VA: William Clark Birthplace Historical Marker

Locust Hill, VA: Meriwether Lewis Birthplace Historical Marker

The University of Virginia in Charlottesville is considered to be founded by President Thomas Jefferson in 1819. Jefferson desired a modern public institution with a broader scope than his alma mater, the College of William and Mary, which offered the traditional courses of medicine, law and theology. His new school would provide instruction in more of the sciences, and was to be separated from religious doctrine. James Monroe and James Madison were also involved in establishing the university.

Kings of Freedom (by Dennis Kraun) are sections of the
Berlin Wall, obtained in 1990 by Robert Hefner

The Aviator (1918, by Gutzon Borglum)
Memorial to James Rogers McConnell

James Rogers McConnell was a UVA student who dropped out of law school, then later went to France as an ambulance driver at the start of WWI. Believing as an American, he needed to do more, McConnell trained as an aviator and joined the French aviation service. For nearly two years he participated in the defense of France, until fatally shot down in March 1917. The United States finally entered the war in April 1917. There is also a plaque of commemoration from France.

Part of the Academical Village at UVA,
housing rooms for students

One student's room has been "preserved,"
that of Edgar Allan Poe, who attended
for one term and did well, but
could not afford to continue

The plaque on the wall notes that the walls
and buildings of UVA were built by enslaved
laborers, after the design by Jefferson (KSS)

The Lawn of UVA (KSS)

At the top of The Lawn is the Rotunda, designed by
Thomas Jefferson as the school library

Both sides of the Lawn are bordered by the Pavilions
(faculty residence and space) connected by the Colonnades
(series of individual rooms for the students)

The student rooms (with a fireplace)
now seem to house at least two students

The Pavilion windows are triple hung,
but since they do not open onto a veranda,
they have a railing to stop falls (KSS)

Seated Thomas Jefferson statue
(1915, by Karl Bitter) (KSS)

Homer (1907, by Moses Jacob Ezekial), who
was blind, is depicted with a boy with a lyre

Statue (1913, by Jean-Antoine Houdon)
of George Washington

The George Washington statue is one of 33 bronze copies made of a 1796 original in marble commissioned by Thomas Jefferson from Houdon; the original now stands in the Virginia capital in Richmond. We have seen a copy at Valley Forge, PA.

Statue (1910, by Moses Jacob Ezekial) of Thomas Jefferson
on the north side of the Rotunda

We found the Maclura pomifera/Orange
Osage trees that are, at least, descendants
of slips sent by Lewis and Clark

Four Orange Osage trees surround
Morea Hall on the UVA campus

The base of the Lewis and Clark statue at
Main and Ridge Streets in Charlottesville,
which has been removed because it depicted
Sakagawea in a very subservient pose

Next: Lewis & Clark Trip 5B Monticello.