Read in conjunction with the Lewis and Clark journals (Mss.917.3.L58) and William Clark Diary (Mss.917.3.L58c), the Meriwether Lewis journal will serve scholars researching the Lewis and Clark Expedition and western exploration in the early national period. Lewis' journal offers an early account of the river trip from Pittsburgh to the winter camp of the expedition, Camp Dubois, outside what is today Wood River, Illinois (June and December 1803). Lewis furnishes various meteorological observations as well as entries from William Clark. About a quarter of the journal (31 of 126 leaves) contains questions from Nicholas Biddle, with William Clark's replies, dated 1810. Biddle later requested that Clark write a narrative of the expedition, which was published as "History of the Expedition of Captains Lewis and Clark" (1814). This journal has also been printed in M. M. Quaife, ed., "The Journals of Captain Meriwether Lewis and Sargeant John Ordway, Kept on the Expedition of Western Exploration, 1803-1806," State Historical Society of Wisconsin Collections 22 (1916).
 

The Lewis and Clark Journals are among the most treasured and well-known collections at the American Philosophical Society. These 30 manuscript journals provide a detail record of the travels of Lewis and Clark to the source of the Missouri River and across the continent to the Pacific Ocean, including interlineations by Nicholas Biddle, who later published the narrative "History of the Expedition of Captains Lewis and Clark" (1814). Interested researchers may refer to the Finding Aid for a detailed account of the collection. Scholars researching the Lewis and Clark Expedition and western exploration in the early national period may choose to complement these volumes by paging the Meriwether Lewis Journal (Mss.917.3.L58), which provides an early account of the river trip from Pittsburgh to the winter camp of the expedition (1803), and the William Clark Diary (Mss.917.3.L58c), which details Clark's diplomatic expedition into the Missouri Territory after the expedition (1808).