In 1804, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark began their historic 8,000-mile exploration of the lands comprising the Louisiana Purchase. This guide created by the Science, Technology & Business Division lists books, articles and online resources useful for researching their many natural history discoveries.

Includes maps and documents from the Lewis & Clark Expedition.

This exhibition focuses on the legacy of Thomas Jefferson. A section on the West examines Jefferson’s role in the Louisiana Purchase and the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

This exhibition contains maps, images and documents related to the Lewis & Clark Expedition, including another copy of Jefferson's secret message to Congress.

Explorer Meriwether Lewis, who joined William Clark to blaze a trail across the continent to the Pacific Ocean, was born on August 18, 1774, near Charlottesville, Virginia.

On October 20, 1803, the Senate ratified the Louisiana Purchase Treaty by a vote of twenty-four to seven. The agreement, which provided for the purchase of the western half of the Mississippi River basin from France at a price of $15 million, or approximately four cents per acre, doubled the size of the country and paved the way for westward expansion beyond the Mississippi.