Unpacking Lewis and Clark Artifacts at Monticello
An interactive feature depicting Jefferson examining items from the Lewis and Clark items with help from three of his grandchildren and enslaved butler Burwell Colbert.
Before they left Ft. Mandan in April 1805, Lewis and Clark packed up a shipment to send President Jefferson. It included trade items from indigenous people; animal skins, bones, and antlers; a live prairie dog, four magpies, and a grouse; and plant, soil, and mineral samples. The captains listed the contents on a packing list that they sent ahead of the shipment. The four boxes, two large trunks, and three cages arrived at the President's House in Washington in August while Jefferson was at Monticello; Etienne Lemaire, Jefferson's butler, wrote him that the shipment had come. Having eagerly anticipated its arrival, Jefferson sent instructions for unpacking and caring for the objects.
Detail from the Fort Mandan Packing List of items sent to Jefferson
When Jefferson returned to Washington from Monticello in early October 1805, he annotated the packing list, noting which objects had come. Although we do not know the final destination of every object that arrived in Washington from Ft. Mandan, Jefferson sent material from the shipment to at least three different places: the Peale Museum, the American Philosophical Society, and Monticello.
A Live Prairie Dog and Magpie, and Skins and Bones
Jefferson sent a live prairie dog and magpie and some of the animal skins, skeletons, and horns to Charles Willson Peale, the Philadelphia artist and museum impresario, for the Peale Museum, his public gallery of art and natural history. Peale would also receive later donations directly from Lewis and Clark. Jefferson included with Peale's shipment plant, soil, and mineral specimens for the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia.
Painting of President Jefferson and His Magpie by Louis S. Glanzman, 1970; courtesy the White House Historical Association
Jefferson sent a third group of the objects from Lewis and Clark's shipment to Monticello in March 1806. This included elk, deer, antelope, and mountain sheep horns; otter and weasel skins; and objects from indigenous peoples of the west, including pipes, leggings, bows, arrows, pottery, and notably, a painted buffalo robe depicting a battle scene. A map drawn on a bison calf hide by an Indigenous mapmaker representing the Missouri River and its tributaries between the Platte and the Yellowstone Rivers, was also was sent to Jefferson by General James Wilkinson, governor of the Louisiana Territory.
Reproduction of a Mandan Buffalo Robe similar to one sent to Jefferson by Lewis and Clark