CHICAGO (August 16, 2005) - The Newberry Library, whose collections in Native American history are among the finest in the world, will present the only Chicago-area exhibition commemorating the Corps of Discovery's epic journey across the "Indian Country" during the national bicentennial celebration.
From Sept. 28, 2005, through Jan. 14, 2006, the Newberry will present Lewis and Clark and the Indian Country. The exhibit builds on what visitors already know about this epic journey - three years, 33 explorers, 4,000 miles of territory, and a Jeffersonian mandate to find a northwest trade passage. It then broadens the traditional narrative by spanning more than 200 years of American history to tell the other half of the story, the Native American story.
What results is a compelling look at what happens, and continues to happen, when two nations and two ways of life meet, negotiate and learn to live together for two centuries.
"What often gets lost in the story is that Lewis and Clark did not explore a wilderness; they traveled through an inhabited homeland," said Frederick E. Hoxie, Ph.D., exhibit curator and Swanlund Professor of History at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. "So this expedition is part of the history of the native peoples the explorers met, and the bicentennial offers us an opportunity to understand an Indian perspective on our shared American past."
Drawing on the Newberry Library's rich collections, together with the voices and images of contemporary Native Americans, Lewis and Clark and the Indian Country will examine the initial encounters and relations between the explorers and the Indians and reveal the legacy of the expedition for a young American nation and for modern Native American communities.
The exhibit will invite visitors to consider the triumphs and tragedies that marked this transcontinental journey and to reflect on the two centuries of dramatic regional change that followed this remarkable adventure.
Lewis and Clark and the Indian Country will feature approximately 130 items, including books, manuscripts, maps, artwork and photography from the Newberry Library's renowned American Indian and American history collections, as well as artifacts on loan from peer institutions, cultural organizations along the Lewis and Clark route and private collections.
Highlights of the exhibit will include: a hand-written diary of the expedition by private Joseph Whitehouse, the earliest printed journal of the expedition by sergeant Patrick Gass, a manuscript map of the expedition from 1811, six original sketches of western Indians by George Catlin, and rare editions of tribal folklore.
Lewis and Clark and the Indian Country will be supplemented by a resource book to be published by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and interactive media kiosks and a project Web site to be developed in partnership with the University of Montana.
This exhibit is made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities: great ideas brought to life. The Sara Lee Foundation is the Lead Corporate Sponsor of Lewis and Clark and the Indian Country. Major underwriting has been generously contributed by Ruth C. Ruggles. Additional support for the exhibit 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. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this exhibition do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
The Newberry Library is an independent humanities library founded in 1887 that is free and open to the public. The Newberry houses an extensive collection of rare books, manuscripts, and maps that span the history and culture of western Europe and the Americas from the Middle Ages through World War I. The Newberry offers a wide variety of exhibits, lectures, classes and concerts that relate to its collections.