By Topic: Washington DC

Saturday, October 28, 2006

Lewis and Clark Road Trips Congressional Briefing

Since I was going to be in Washington attending Book Expo, I thought it would be a good idea to give away some copies of Lewis and Clark Road Trips to members of Congress and their staffs to promote and support the legislative bill extending the National Lewis and Clark Trail to include the eastern states. One thing led to another and Representative Jeff Fortenberry’s (NE) office arranged for me to give a congressional briefing to the Lewis and Clark Caucus and Travel & Tourism Caucus on May 23rd. It was attended by about 20 staff members of congressional representatives.

My biggest worry was how to get twenty some books to the briefing! I had shipped the books to DC by Fed-Ex,  but getting them through security at the Capitol needed personal delivery. I put the books in my wheeled carry-on case and took a taxi to the Cannon House Office Building. When I saw the row of steps going up into the building, I asked a young man where the delivery entrance was. Within a few minutes this amazing young person had carried my 50 pound case up at least thirty steps, put it on the security check apparatus, taken it down, and there I was in the beautiful marble halls with my books. I found the briefing room and left the books there while I went downstairs to walk over through the tunnels to the Food Court in the Longworth House Office Building. The cafeteria was filled with congressional staffers, visitors and groups of high school students visiting Washington. Many years ago when I was in high school I visited the Capitol and my congressman Barrett O’Hara from Chicago treated me to the famous Senate Bean Soup. I had bean soup again in honor of his memory. 

The briefing went well. I just showed them the book and we talked. I want to encourage the passage of H.R. 5053 and S-3513, the companion house and senate bills for the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail Extension Act of 2006. The Act will extend the trail to include the eastern states. The National Historic Trail now starts and ends in the area of their 1803-04 Wood River Camp near Hartford, Illinois. My book, Lewis and Clark Road Trips, has almost 200 destinations east of Hartford, Illinois. It is an obvious error of omission to not include the White House, where the expedition was planned, where Meriwether Lewis lived for two years as President Jefferson’s private assistant; and from where he departed on July 5, 1803 and to where he returned on December 28, 1806 to report to the President.

Washington DC, Virginia, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, Tennesee, Kentucky and Indiana will be added to the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail (administered by the National Park Service) when the legislation is enacted. We need more co-sponsors to ensure that the bill will pass in 2007. Call or e-mail your congressional offices to request that your representatives add their names to the list of co-sponsors. The sponsors are Representative Melissa Hart (PA) and Senator Jim Bunning (KY). Contact the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation for more information.

Posted by Kira Gale on 10/28/2006 at 02:33 PM

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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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