SOURCE: An introduction to The Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition: August 30, 1803-August 24, 1804, Volume 2, edited by Gary E. Moulton, University of Nebraska Press, 1986, pp. 8-35.

In the following excerpt, Moulton examines in detail how and by what methods Lewis and Clark chronicled their expedition. Moulton focuses in particular on whether or not the captains wrote continuously throughout the duration of the expedition or whether they wrote the majority of the text after the expedition was complete.

… the Journal-keeping Methods of Lewis and Clark

Clark's last entry is a reminder that “wrighting &c.” was one of the principal tasks of the captains, and one that they thoroughly fulfilled. As Donald Jackson has observed, Lewis and Clark were “the writingest explorers of their time. They wrote constantly and abundantly, afloat and ashore, legibly and illegibly, and always with an urgent sense of purpose.”¹ They left us a remarkably full...