By Topic: BOOKS/AUTHORS

Thursday, July 09, 2009

Lucy Meriwether Lewis Marks Exhibit at Jefferson Library

I visited Charlottesville in late May, 2009 to give a book talk on our new book, The Death of Meriwether Lewis: A Historic Crime Scene Investigation, which I co-authored with James E. Starrs. While there, I had the pleasure of meeting Lewis family members, Howell Lewis Bowen and his wife Janice. They took me to visit the Jefferson Library near Monticello to see an exhibit on the life of Meriwether Lewis’s mother, Lucy Meriwether Lewis Marks, Virginia Planter and Doctoress (1752-1837). Howell is a five times great grandson of Lucy Marks. Lewis family members have launched a website, www.solvethemystery.org asking for an exhumation of Lewis’s remains to determine the cause of death and provide for a Christian reburial. Our book also has a website, www.deathofmeriwetherlewis.com  In this book I discuss “The Case for Murder” and present my theories as to who did it and why. But this blog is about Lucy Marks, who had another theory.

Lucy Marks always believed that her son Meriwether was murdered, and she suspected that Lewis’s servant, John Pernier, who brought her the news, was the murderer. In this she was undoubtedly wrong, but what excited her suspicion is unknown. Pernier was present at the death scene, but supposedly (according to the report of Indian Agent James Neely) did not hear the two gun shots. He and Neely’s servant were sleeping in the stable loft and had to be awakened by Mrs. Grinder, the tavern keeper. Neely adds that both servants came in  “too late to save him.”
Pernier also brought the news to Presidents Jefferson and Madison. Pernier,  a free mulatto of mixed French and African descent, had been a servant in the Jefferson White House. He went with Lewis to St. Louis as his personal valet, and was still owed $271.50 in back pay after Lewis’s death.While he was in Washington D. C. attempting to get his pay, he met an untimely death on May 1, 1810. Though “wretchedly poor an destitute” he had obtained a quantity of laudanum (tincture of opium) and died of an overdose. The circumstances surrounding his death are certainly suspicious.
The Jefferson Library has over 10,000 books and other materials in its collection. The exhibit was handsomely mounted and featured two portraits of Lucy Marks, one painted from life by John Toole, and the other by a contemporary artist, Janet Brome. She did a lot of research in creating this painting, even learning how to use paints made from plant dyes. I thought the portrait was quite lovely.  The exhibit also features many  botanical drawings by contemporary artists. Altogether, it was a fine exhibit in an absolutely beautiful library. To see the paintings featured in the exhibit, in nice detail, visit the Jefferson Library website www.monticello.org/library, where there is a link to the online exhibit. The website has many interesting links and features.


  The Jefferson Library near Monticello

Interior of the Jefferson Library

Lucy Marks by Janet Brome

Lucy Marks by John Toole

Posted by Kira Gale on 07/09/2009 at 01:48 PM

BOOKS/AUTHORS • Kira Gale • DEATH OF MERIWETHER LEWIS • Murder theory • PEOPLE • Meriwether Lewis • Thomas Jefferson • (1) Comments • Permalink • Digg It • Add to del.icio.us

Wednesday, July 08, 2009

Death of Meriwether Lewis book talk at Charlottesville

We launched our book tour for The Death of Meriwether Lewis: A Historic Crime Scene Investigation at Virginia's oldest bookstore, the New Dominion Bookshop,in downtown Charlottesville. Charlottesville is Meriwether Lewis's hometown, as he was born a few miles outside of town at Locust Hill, his family's plantation, in Albemarle County. Co-author James E. Starrs and I had never met before this book talk. Thankfully, we had no trouble in sharing the presentation, and I think it made it more interesting. We gave another talk at Barnes & Noble bookstore at Baltimore's Inner Harbor a few days later.

PODCAST: Before I left Omaha to fly to Charlottesville I did an interview with radio host Coy Barefoot on Charlottesville--Right Now, a talk show on radio station WINA.To listen to the 19 minute interview, in which you will learn whom I think murdered Meriwether Lewis and why, click here.

I also met Howell Bowen, a Lewis family member, and collateral descendant, who grew up in his native Albemarle County hearing stories of "Uncle Meriwether." Howell and Tom McSwain are leaders of the Lewis family's efforts to have the remains of Meriwether Lewis exhumed in order to determine the cause of death. Starrs, an emeritus professor of forensic science and law at George Washington University, will lead the exhumation team if and when the National Park Service grants the family's request.

The family has launched a website, www.solvethemystery.org and our book has a website, www.deathofmeriwetherlewis.com  Join the mailing list to receive monthly email newsletters with Lewis and Clark news from around the country.

I have visited Charlottesville several times, but never had the opportunity to see the famous George Rogers Clark, Conqueror of the Old Northwest, statue. It turned out I could see it right across the street from my motel window at the Red Roof Inn. GRC, as he is called, was an older brother of William Clark. He won the Old Northwest Territory for the United States by capturing the British fort at Vincennes, Indiana. There is a massive memorial for him there.

Thomas Jefferson, Meriwether Lewis, and George Rogers Clark are all native sons of Albemarle County.

Posted by Kira Gale on 07/08/2009 at 02:53 PM

BOOKS/AUTHORS • James E. Starrs • Kira Gale • DEATH OF MERIWETHER LEWIS • GEOGRAPHY/PLACES • Virginia • PEOPLE • George Rogers Clark • (0) Comments • Permalink • Digg It • Add to del.icio.us

Monday, June 22, 2009

Death of Meriwether Lewis Book Expo of America podcast

James E. Starrs and Kira Gale, the co-authors of The Death of Meriwether Lewis: A Historic Crime Scene Investigation were interviewed on a Book Expo of America podcast. To listen to the five minute podcast, click here.

Posted by Kira Gale on 06/22/2009 at 01:04 PM

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Monday, July 07, 2008

Prince Maximilian’s Journals provide the text for Bodmer’s paintings

If you love the watercolors of Karl Bodmer, you will want to read the journals of Prince Maximilian. Looking at the drawings alone is like reading a comic book missing its words. The first volume of a modern edition of the journals has just been published by the University of Oklahoma Press. It is available from the press at a cost of $85. (The ISBN number is 978-0-8061-3888-6.) The title is The North American Journals of Prince Maximilian of Wied: Volume 1: May 1832-April 1833. I just bought a copy at Joslyn Art Museum, the home of both the Bodmer drawings and the original journals of Prince Maximilian. This publication has been long awaited, and it was well worth the wait. It is a glorious publication. 

Joslyn Art Museum has a current exhibit, Karl Bodmer’s Eastern Views: Celebrating Volume 1 of the North American Journals of Prince Maximilian of Wied, which will be up through August 31st. The small paintings cover their voyage across the Atlantic, their travels from the east coast to St. Louis, and their stay in the utopian scholarly community of New Harmony, Indiana. It is worth a trip to Omaha, Nebraska to view. If you travel by car, many sites they visited are destinations in my book, Lewis and Clark Road Trips: Exploring the Trail Across America. With the publication of the next two volumes, we will be able to make many comparisons between the Lewis and Clark Expedition and Maximilian’s travels. When Maxmilian and his companions traveled up the Missouri they visited many of the same places, using copies of maps provided by William Clark. (The map copies are also part of the Joslyn collection.) Bodmer’s paintings have always been considered as primary resources for the Lewis and Clark Journals, as they were painted only about thirty years later.

The journals were written in old German script (which made it hard to translate); and contain delightful small illustrations by the Prince himself. We saw an original journal on display at the exhibit. Editors Stephen S. Witte and Marsha V. Gallagher have done a beautiful job of incorporating his illustrations and providing additional commentary in a page layout that makes it a joy to read.  The book is a classic, and upon publication of all three volumes, will provide much needed, valuable information. It is also fun to read; unlike the official report style of the Lewis and Clark Journals, it is a personal journal, filled with insights and observations. What a treat to finally get to know Prince Max, and to put the words with the pictures!

Posted by Kira Gale on 07/07/2008 at 01:25 PM

BOOKS/AUTHORS • Old Travel Accounts • (1) Comments • Permalink • Digg It • Add to del.icio.us

Friday, May 16, 2008

How I got started writing Lewis and Clark Road Trips

Years ago, in 1991, I acquired my first computer, a little MacIntosh with a 160 megabytes of memory. Now my computer has 465 gigabytes of memory. I can’t even do the math to compare it. That little computer was wonderful because it had copy, paste and delete functions and it could do images. I was in heaven! I decided to do a book of local history.  It was going to be called Exploring History in Omaha-Council Bluffs: from Prehistoric Times to 1854. It featured 50 places to visit that were related to the history of that time period, the time before Nebraska Territory was established. 

Even then I knew that Lewis and Clark were special and I gave them a chapter all of their own. My other chapters were prehistoric Indians, Indians, the fur trade, and the Mormon-Oregon-California historic trails. I identified 50 places to visit, and had lots of fun doing so, and even found a couple of lost trading posts (that is, lost to the present day historic record). I was inspired by serving as a tour guide for the national meeting of the Oregon-California Trails Association which was held in Omaha at that time. I think we all have a natural curiosity about learning “what happened here.” Dorothy Dustin and Charles Martin had created the tour guide scripts. I checked out their history, and they were right on target. I discovered that due to our location, Omaha and Council Bluffs had been a center of historic events of national importance, and that many famous people were associated with our history. 

Lewis and Clark Study Group

The years went by, and gradually my book was taking shape, but I could see that the Lewis and Clark bicentennial was going to happen. In 2001 decided to work on a national book project, and started the Lewis and Clark Study Group at the Western Historic Trails Center in Council Bluffs. My partner was Darrel Draper, who also needed to study the complete set of the modern journals of Lewis and Clark edited by Gary Moulton. Darrel went onto impersonate George Drouillard, and I went onto write Lewis and Clark Road Trips, with over 800 destinations around the country. 

Study Group is now in its eighth year.We are part of the Mouth of the Platte Chapter of the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation. I served as the first president of the chapter, and received the 2007 Meritorious Achievement Award of the national foundation last year. We meet weekly on Tuesdays from 9-11 during September through May, and during the summer we are touring the area. 

This photo is taken during our visit to the Glenwood, Iowa public library where we are examining books written by Donald Jackson, a native a Glenwood, and editor of the Letters of Lewis and Clark, among many other major publications. Jackson called the old Carnegie Library his own "personal Library of Congress."

The Glenwood earth lodge

We spent the day in Glenwood and also visited the Mills County Historical Museum and the Glenwood earth lodge, and dined at the Oasis cafe. It brought back many memories for me. The first attraction in the local history book project was going to be the reconstructed earth lodge at Glenwood, Iowa. I used to go over and visit with its builder, D. D. Davis, who had spent a lifetime roaming the Pony Creek area of the Loess Hills, acquiring prehistoric artifacts that are on display at the Mills County Historical Museum. D. D. told me that boy scouts had figured out the technique for building an authentic earth lodge—throw the mud to make the walls of the earth lodge! The earth lodge, which has a life span of 15-20 years, has since been rebuilt by Glenwood volunteers, and they are still using this technique.

To learn more, please visit the Study Group page of my website at http://www.lewisandclarkroadtrips.com.  We also took along our Lewis and Clark Buddy Bear, sometimes called Biddle. There are several bears out roaming the Lewis and Clark Trail and posing for photo ops. If you want to have your own bear, please contact me.

Posted by Kira Gale on 05/16/2008 at 11:24 AM

BOOKS/AUTHORS • Kira Gale • LEWIS AND CLARK ROAD TRIPS • GEOGRAPHY/PLACES • Omaha-Council Bluffs • (0) Comments • Permalink • Digg It • Add to del.icio.us

Thursday, December 07, 2006

Lewis and Clark War Vessels, Then and Now

The United States Navy has named its newest ship in the Lewis and Clark class of underway resupply vessels, the  USNS Alan Shepard, honoring the first American in space, Rear Admiral Alan B. Shepard, Jr.  The Lewis and Clark class of navy ships are dry cargo ships, whose function is to transfer cargo while at sea to station ships and other naval warfare forces.  They carry ammunition, food, limited quantities of fuel, and various other items.  Two earlier ships were christened the USNS Lewis and Clark and the USNS Sacagawea. Twelve ships are planned, and all will be named for famous American explorers and pioneers. To learn more, visit the Wikipedia website.  A Lewis and Clark class vessel is 689 feet long and 106 feet across. By comparison, the Lewis and Clark keelboat is 55 feet long, and is based on the design of a galliot, or Spanish war vessel that kind of has a similiar profile.

The keelboat shown here is the creation of Butch Bouvier, who has custom made keelboats all across the country for Lewis and Clark interpretive centers.  This is one of his first creations, and the only one that floats for much of the year. It is based at Lewis and Clark State Park on Blue Lake at Onawa, Iowa about 80 miles north of Omaha, Nebraska and Council Bluffs, Iowa. Butch’s other Lewis and Clark keelboats are all on land or  inside buildings. To read more about the controversies regarding its design, visit his website—flat or round bottomed, keel or no keel? I am on Butch’s side on these issues.

We have had some Lewis and Clark Study  Group discussion of exactly what kind of boat Lewis and Clark had. It was called a "barge" or a "batteau" in the journals. The design is based on a drawing done by William Clark found in his journal.  But it really isn’t a traditional keelboat, as they were long and narrow, pointed at both ends, and with a cabin in the middle.  I remembered that I had seen an earlier sketch by William Clark of a Spanish War Vessel, that looked like this boat. His sketch is at the Missouri Historical Society. Landon Y. Jones refers to it in his excellent biography, William Clark and the Shaping of the West.   (If you buy the biography from the Lewis and Clark Road Trips website, or from this link, my Amazon Associate account will be credited.)

This drawing is from an out of print book, Spanish War Vessels on the Mississippi 1792-1798 by Abraham P. Nasatir (Yale University Press, 1968). William Clark as a young Lieutenant in the United States Army made two trips down the Mississippi, in 1793 and 1795. In 1795 he delivered a letter from General Anthony Wayne to the commanding general of the Spanish forces, Governor Gayosco de Lemos, demanding to know by what authority the Spanish had established a fort at Chickasaw Bluffs (Nashville, Tennessee) on the east side of the Mississippi River in US territory. Gayosco replied he had bought it from the Chickasaw Indians. When Clark returned to Fort Washington (Cincinnati, Ohio) he made a full report to General Wayne, including a sketch of the governor’s Spanish war vessel, or galliot, shown here in a later sketch from 1798.

Posted by Kira Gale on 12/07/2006 at 11:38 AM

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Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Gary Moulton Reviews Bicentennial

Professor Gary Moulton, the Editor of the Lewis and Clark Journals, gave a talk at the monthly dinner meeting of the Mouth of the Platte chapter of the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation on November 21, 2006. The chapter meets on the 3rd Tuesday of each month at the Dodge Riverside Grill overlooking the Missouri River in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Visitors are welcome.  Dr. Moulton reviewed the bicentennial from a historian’s perspective: he focused on the lasting and living legacy of the expedition’s journals, the botanical specimens collected by Meriwether Lewis, and the maps made by William Clark. Dr. Moulton himself spent over 20 years editing the journals.  He was asked "What’s next?"  He has been serving as a consultant to Joslyn Art Museum in Omaha, Nebraska, which is in the process of publishing the first volume of Prince Maximilian’s Journals of his travels up the Missouri River in 1832-34. The volumes will be published by the University of Oklahoma Press. The journals are part of Joslyn’s world famous Western Art Collection, which features the paintings of Karl Bodmer, who accompanied Prince Maximilian on his travels. They traveled with copies of William Clark’s maps, which are also part of the Western Art Collection. Dr. Moulton revealed that he is working on one more Lewis and Clark project: he is writing a day by day narrative of the expedition’s travels.  That will be a most welcome addition to my Top 50 Lewis and Clark Books (available through my Amazon Affiliate Bookstore) when it comes out!  We can anticipate its publication next year.

Shown here are Bob Pawloski, President of MOP, and Fay and Gary Moulton. Bob is in change of three Lewis and Clark websites, the National Bicentennial website, theNebraska Bicentennial website, and the Mouth of the Platte website.  He is also editing videos of programs given in the Tent of Many Voices, which toured the country under the auspices of the National Park Service’s Corps of Discovery II during the Bicentennial years, 2003-2006.  I will be blogging about these videos, of which over 500 short clips (6-8 minutes) are already available for viewing at www.lewisclarkandbeyond.com.

Posted by Kira Gale on 11/22/2006 at 01:04 PM

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Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Google Earth Adds Historic 1814 Lewis and Clark Map

Google Earth has added a very cool new feature—16 historical maps from the David Rumsey Historical Map Collection.  To use the historical maps feature, the latest version of Google Earth is needed.  A free download of the beta version released on November 1st is available at  Google Earth.  Naturally I wanted to see the Lewis and Clark Map from 1814.  I tilted the view, added grid lines and zoomed fairly far out for this screen shot.  You can zoom right in and easily read all the notations in the historical map.  What is even more fascinating is that you can search for any modern location on the basic Google Earth map made from satellite images, and it will be pinpointed on the historic map. I searched for Butte, Montana and saw William Clark’s notation "Oat-la-shoot 430 souls." Nearby was Ordway River and Pryor’s Creek. You can hide the historic map layer and search the satellite image map to compare features.

This map was first published in the History of the Expedition under the Command of Captains Lewis and Clark,  the first publication of the journals in 1814.  This edition, known as the "Biddle Edition" may be seen at the Library of Congress American Memory website in "The First American West: the Ohio River Valley, 1750-1820."

The Lewis and Clark Road Trips book and website includes our own version of matching the historic campsites trail with  modern maps. 573 historical campsite locations, as determined by Professor Bob Bergantino of Montana Tech, are placed on topo maps in the book, and listed on spreadsheets. The spreadsheets will also be available online as of November 20, 2006. All of the locations are cross referenced to the journals.  This Google Earth map will now allow us to follow the map drawn by William Clark in 1810.

Posted by Kira Gale on 11/14/2006 at 09:46 PM

BOOKS/AUTHORS • Lewis and Clark Trail • Google Earth • (0) Comments • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink • Digg It • Add to del.icio.us

Friday, November 10, 2006

Best Books on Sacagawea

Sacagawea’s life story has been often misrepresented in fiction, fact, and oral history. The real story is much more interesting. These four books are the ones I have chosen for inclusion in the Top 50 Lewis and Clark Books for adults, and Lewis and Clark for Young Readers.

Top 50 Lewis and Clark Books

Sacagawea’s Child: The Life and Times of Jean-Baptiste (Pomp) Charbonneau by Susan Colby (2005).

The author has thoroughly researched her subject, and presents a fascinating, well written account of Sacagawea and her family, filled with colorful insights. One of the finest books ever written on this time period. It includes many dramatic events and famous personalities of the early American West, beginning with the story of Sacagawea, her husband Toussaint Charbonneau, and their baby as members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. It then focuses on the life of their son: Pomp’s adoption by William Clark and subsequent schooling in St Louis; six years exploring Europe with a German prince; years as a mountain man and guide in the Rocky Mountains; scout services for the Mormon Battalion during the Mexican-American War; appointment as a government official at the San Luis Mission north of San Diego after the war; and later years as a prospector for gold and inn keeper of "Murderer’s Inn" during the California Gold Rush. Published in the Western Frontiersmen Series of the Arthur H. Clark Company.

Sacagawea Speaks: Beyond the Shining Mountains with Lewis and Clark by Joyce Badgley Hunsaker (2001)

The book is based on a program presented by one of America’s most respected and popular living history story tellers, Joyce Hunsaker. It is beautifully illustrated, and can be enjoyed for its illustrations as well as its lyrical story telling. It includes extensive notes, Shoshone vocabulary, timeline, and biographies of expedition members. The author is part Indian in her ancestry, and has been honored by several tribes as well as giving performances at the Smithsonian and National Geographic in Washington, DC.

Lewis and Clark Books for Young Readers

Sacagawea by Stack DeKeyser (2004)

Grades 3-6. One of a series of Books About Exploration published by Scholastic. It’s a lovely book with fine illustrations and presents information in a way that will interest young readers.

Sacagawea’s Son: The Life of Jean Baptiste Charbonneau by Marion Tinling (2001)

Suitable for adult readers as well as ages 10 and up. Focuses on Jean Baptiste’s life after the expedition: his travels to Europe and adventures as a mountain man, scout in the Mexican-American War, and gold rush prospector. Well illustrated with photos and historic drawings.

Posted by Kira Gale on 11/10/2006 at 07:23 AM

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Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Signing at the Signature Rock, Pompey’s Pillar near Billings, Montana

Pompey’s Pillar was named by William Clark for Sacagawea’s little boy, Jean Baptiste Charbonneau, who was called "Pomp" or "Pompey."  The toddler, who was born on February 11, 1805 at Fort Mandan near Bismarck, North Dakota, got a giant graffiti rock, a distinctive outcropping about 150 feet high, named after him when he was 17 months old. William Clark climbed to near the top of the rock, carved "William Clark  July 25 1806" in the soft sandstone, and named it "Pompey’s Tower." The editor of his published journal, Nicholas Biddle, renamed  it "Pompey’s Pillar." Located near a natural crossing of the Yellowstone River, the Crown Indians called the butte, Iishbiiammaache, or "the place where the mountain lion dwelled." For centuries Native Americans made hundreds of their own carvings (petroglyphs) and paintings (pictographs) on the rock. 

I signed Lewis and Clark Road Trips books in the Stephen A Ambrose Authors Tent  in 106 degree heat at Pompey’s Pillar. Despite the heat over 25,000 people attended the the 13th Lewis and Clark National Signature Event which was held 30 miles east of Billings, Montana in late July, 2006.  

 Peyton "Bud" Clark, the great, great, great grandson of William Clark reenacted his ancestor’s carving of his name and date on an outdoor stage at Pompey’s Pillar in that terrible heat, but he’s as tough as William Clark and got it done. Bud  has shown all the leadership skills, endurance and enjoyment of people, adventure, and the great outdoors that William Clark had. His participation in the bicentennial observances as the leader of the Discovery Expedition of St Charles has been one of the most important and lasting memories of these special years.

 Not to worry about climbing  the boardwalk if you are visiting. There is a brand new Visitor Center, which was dedicated at the Signature Event, where you can enjoy a view of the Pillar in comfort and use a telescope to get a close up view. The Visitor Center is open from the last weekend in May to the first weekend in September. There is year round access to the rock itself. It’s just a coincidence that this was called a "Signature Event" as this was the name given to all fifteen places around the country who hosted National Signature Events in the bicentennial years.

Pompey’s Pillar became a National Historic Landmark in 1965, and a National Historic Monument in 2001. William Clark’s signature today is enclosed in a protective glass frame, first put there by the local family who leased the land in the 1950’s and later bought it to preserve this remarkable piece of history. Read about Don and Stella Foote on the web’s great Lewis and Clark history website, Discovering Lewis & Clark.

Posted by Kira Gale on 11/01/2006 at 12:19 PM

BOOKS/AUTHORS • Lewis and Clark Trail • Montana • TRAVEL • NATIVE AMERICAN • Sacagawea • National Historic Landmark/ Monument • (1) Comments • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink • Digg It • Add to del.icio.us

Saturday, October 28, 2006

Author Goes Sightseeing in Washington DC

I had one destination I wanted to see more than anything else: the George Catlin Indian Gallery at the Smithsonian's Renwick Gallery. The Renwick Gallery located three blocks north of the White House is one of Washington's most famous old buildings. 287 of Catlin's Indian portraits and landscapes are on permanent exhibit in the Renwick's Grand Salon, hung floor to ceiling in the old manner. Catlin painted many of the Indian tribes visited by Lewis and Clark, and is the source of much of the first hand knowledge we have today. He was a friend of William Clark's.  Read more about his fascinating life in the Smithsonian Magazine. Catlin's paintings were acquired by the Smithsonian in 1871 and first exhibited in the Smithsonian Castle. They have only recently been placed on full exhibit once again. The Renwick, like all Smithsonian institutions, has free admission.

This was very much a working vacation--what with Book Expo and the Lewis and Clark Road Trips congressional briefing--but I did manage to get in some sightseeing. I was glad to be in a taxi to get an orientation to America's National Mall.  At 2.5 miles, it's a big place!  It was a thrill to see the Washington Monument as the plane landed at Reagan National Airport across the Potomac River from the Mall. I wished I could have had the time to visit the monument and see the view.

After obtaining a pass from a congressional office, I walked along the Mall one evening to see the House  in session at the Capitol. I sat in the galleries next to a high school civics teacher who explained what was going on. They were like a flock of birds, swooping in and out of the legislative chamber.  They do their business elsewhere and return to vote. The most surprising thing to me was the full length portrait of the Marquis de Lafayette in the chamber flanking the portrait of George Washington.  As I left the Capitol I saw one of America's most famous paintings, Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way by Emmanuel Leutze (1861). It is the premiere symbol of Manifest Destiny, a concept embedded in the Lewis and Clark Expedition. The giant wall mural is displayed near the house chamber at a marble staircase landing. There's a  book by a Native American lawyer just published on the subject: Native America, Discovered and Conquered: Thomas Jefferson, Lewis & Clark, and Manifest Destiny by Robert J. Miller. It's one of my Top 50 Lewis and Clark Books picks, available through the Lewis and Clark Road Trips Amazon Associate bookstore. It's one of the most important books to come out of the bicentennial observances.

Herman Viola gave me a tour of the National Lewis and Clark Bicentennial Exhibit which ended its national tour at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. Dr. Viola was one of the experts who helped put it together. I had seen it in St Louis, Missouri in 2004, but it was worth seeing many times over. The exhibition book,  Lewis and Clark Across the Divide by Carolyn Gilman, which is very beautiful, is another one of the Top 50 Lewis and Clark Books. The exhibit was a collection of authentic artifacts of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, loaned by over 50 institutions. What struck me most forcibly was how rich looking the objects were--both what the expedition carried, and what they obtained from the Native American tribes.

 I visited  Politics & Prose Bookstore, which I often see hosting book talks on C-SPAN's Book TV. I am a native of Washington DC; my mother told me that when I was a toddler she would take me to book talks at a DC bookstore, and I would play in a playpen made out of stacks of books! I am still surrounded by stacks of books--only now I can read them--and I still  hear book talks on weekends with Book TV. Politics & Prose is just as neat as I thought it would be. There was a book talk going on, the place was crammed with books,  and there was a coffee shop in the lower level. It's located at 5015 Connecticut Avenue in a pleasant neighborhood with nearby restaurants.

All of these destinations (except Politics & Prose) are included in Lewis and Clark Road Trips.

Posted by Kira Gale on 10/28/2006 at 01:01 PM

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Lewis and Clark Road Trips Debuts at Book Expo in Washington DC

I returned to the city of my birth to launch Lewis and Clark Road Trips: Exploring the Trail Across America at the Book Expo of America in Washington, DC in May, 2006. It was my first trip by air in many years; I really do prefer road trips. It was a challenge to pack everything into two carry-on bags. Car travel  is a luxury by comparison! I walked a lot, took city buses, and taxis driven by men from exotic countries like Eritrea. The book was exhibited at the Travel Publishers Association booth.  The director, Joan Peterson, writes the Eat Smart series of culinary guide books to dining, cooking, and food shopping in foreign countries.  I went to dinner at an Indian restaurant with Joan, her daughter, and the others in this photo. Left to right: Susan Peterson Chwae, Joan Peterson, Loretta Alspach, Jeannette Belliveau and myself.  Loretta has written a travel guide to the Swiss Bernese Oberland.  Jeannette is the author of Romance on the Road: Traveling Women Who Love Foreign Men and An Amateur’s Guide to the Planet.

 At the BEA I visited my distributor Independent Publishers Group and arranged to have Lewis and Clark Road Trips distributed in the United Kingdom by Gazelle Books. I gave a copy to Google Books  to include in its Search Inside the Book program. The Google program is somewhat controversial among publishers. Books may either be searched on a limited basis or be fully searchable. I chose fully, as I wanted to see for myself what’s inside the book by using its search function. I think this is a spectacular feature!  See Lewis and Clark Road Trips Google SITB. Plus I believe in giving full access to viewers.  I figure if you like it, you’ll buy it. You can buy it through my Amazon Associate bookstore.

Wandering around Book Expo I saw a notice that Herman Viola would be signing books at the National Geographic booth  with Joseph Medicine Crow, author of Counting Coup: Becoming a Crow Chief on the Reservation and Beyond. Little did I know then that only two months later I would be visiting the land of the Crow Indians and signing books at the Pompey’s Pillar Lewis and Clark Signature Event near Billings, Montana. I have wanted to meet Herman Viola for years. Among his many books are Diplomats in Buckskins: A History of Indian Delegations in Washington DC and The Indian Legacy of Charles Bird King. These two beautiful books feature the early days of DC when Charles Bird King painted his famous Indian portraits. Both of these books are out of print, but may be found at very reasonable prices at www.abebooks.com.  Dr. Viola is a retired curator of the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History.

Posted by Kira Gale on 10/28/2006 at 09:38 AM

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