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On May 14, 1804, a group of 33 hale and hearty souls launched 3 small vessels into the mouth of the Missouri River and embarked on one of the all-time great American adventures. Under the command of Capts. Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, the party was headed into the Louisiana Territory, newly transferred from France to the United States, and clear across the North American continent. The explorers were carrying nearly two tons of supplies and equipment-all they would need to see them through twenty-eight months, and more than 7,500 miles of hardscrabble adventure and exploration.

Patrick Gass, a member of the party anticipated the challenges that lay ahead:

The best authenticated accounts informed us, that we were to pass through a country possessed by numerous, powerful and warlike nations of savages, of gigantic stature, fierce, treacherous and cruel; and particularly hostile to white men. And fame had united with tradition in opposing mountains to our course, which human enterprize and exertion would attempt in vain to pass.

President Thomas Jefferson was actively involved in the planning for the expedition that had begun more than a year before. The purpose of the mission was to explore and report on the geography, geology, astronomy, zoology, botany, and climate of the West; to seek new routes; and to befriend the western tribes of the Indians. Consulting with the young nation's foremost experts in astronomy, medicine, botany, anatomy, and math, he and Lewis drew up lists of provisions the party would need to fulfill its unique mission.

In the spring of 1803, Lewis traveled to the nation's commercial hub-Philadelphia-to gear up for the trek he would lead across the face of the North American continent.

In a shopping spree that lasted through May and part of June 1803, he assembled an astonishing array of materials-gunpowder, flints, and lead-soap, overalls, stockings, shirts, tablespoons, and blankets-mosquito curtains, scales, whiskey, sealing wax, salt, and more. A file of receipts and lists at the National Archives documents Lewis' purchases, evidence of the wise and meticulous planning that contributed to the success of the legendary voyage that is known today as the Lewis and Clark expedition.

Armed with his shopping lists and a thousand-dollar draft from the War Department, Lewis and Israel Whelan, the "Purveyor of Public Supplies," made their rounds of Philadelphia business establishments to accumulate the necessary supplies. They bought camping equipment-107 yards of brown linen to make into tents, hooks and eyes, and oiling for all the linen sheeting; and they bought tools: two handsaws, one screw auger, one handvise, and a bench. They also took twenty-five felling axes, twenty-four files, as well as nails, chisels, and cord.

With regard to clothing, the nation's foremost physician, Dr. Benjamin Rush, advised that flannel be worn next to the skin, especially in wet weather. So from Matilda Chapman they purchased forty-five flannel shirts with linen collars and wristbands. For food, they would hunt, fish, and depend on the trade and generosity of the Indians-they bought large hooks, drum lines, rock lines, and reels from George R. Lawton's fishing tackle shop.

Historians estimate that being on the trail was so physically strenuous that when meat was available, the party ate nine pounds of it per man per day. But some food they would take with them- 193 pounds of portable soup (dried paste made from beef, eggs, and vegetables)-a concoction so unpopular, it was consumed only when the party was close to starvation.

In keeping with early nineteenth-century medical science and the best advice of Dr. Rush, Lewis and Clark's first-aid kit was filled with medicines related to bleeding or purging the patient. Other medicines would combat venereal disease. The apothecary of George Gillaspy and Joseph Strong provided calomel, tartar emetic, mercury, glauber's salt, syringes, lancets, and tourniquets. Amazingly, only one person in the party died during the journey, Sgt. Charles Floyd, from an ailment that medical historians now believe was caused by a ruptured appendix.

To help fulfill the diplomatic aspect of the expedition, the party carried presents and trade goods for the Indian peoples they would encounter: 500 broaches and 72 rings from a Philadelphia silversmith shop and 130 rolls of pigtail tobacco. A list of "Indian Presents" also includes knives, blankets, corn mills, tomahawks, and combs.

The single most expensive item Lewis purchased in Philadelphia for his party was a mathematical instrument -- a $250 gold chronometer used to calculate longitude. A Hadley's Quadrant, mariner's compass, pole chains, thermometers, microscopes, and scales were among the other instruments the party carried.

And to make up the portable packs that would hold all this gear, they needed raw hide for pack string and 30 sheep skins ("taken off the animal as perfectly whole as possible...or otherwise about the same quantity of oil cloth bags").

Several items, critical to the success of the mission, appear on a list of "Mathematical Instruments:" 6 papers of ink powder, 4 metal pens, 1 set of small slates and pencils, 2 crayons, and writing paper. With these items, Lewis and Clark filled twenty volumes describing what they found and what they did throughout the two and a half years of their journey, offering Americans their first breathtaking glimpse of the vast territory that lay west of the Mississippi River.

This document alert is based on original records found in the National Archives, Record Group 92, Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, Consolidated File.

Source: Stacey Bredhoff, curator, National Archives and Records Administration

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