The importance of well-organized government—local, state, and federal—became apparent in the first few years of our nation’s history. Under the Articles of Confederation, each state had its own currency, making commerce more difficult. The national government had neither the right to collect taxes nor to step in during insurgencies, such as Shay’s Rebellion. In this unit, students see how the “Great Compromise” came to be, and how the new nation’s system of checks and balances was tested in the first few decades after the United States Constitution was ratified.

What Primary Sources Can Tell Us about the New Nation

Though British soldiers burned America’s first White House in 1814 during the War of 1812, a good amount of documentation of this nation in its early years still survives.

• Written forms – Official documents—such as the Articles of Confederation, United States Constitution, and Bill of Rights—as well as letters, essays, and other manuscripts debating issues of government, such as The Federalist Papers and George Mason’s Objections to This Constitution, help us to understand the formation of our national government.
• Physical artifacts – The currency that each state printed under the Articles of Confederation, the peace medals that Lewis and Clark brought on their expedition to offer to Native Americans, and survey instruments used by mathematician and scientist Benjamin Banneker provide tangible evidence of the changes that took place in our nation’s early years.
• Images – Maps, paintings, and drawings capture memorable events that took place in our nation’s infancy. They include sketches such as those made by William Clark while leading the Corps of Discovery with Meriwether Lewis and sketches of what the artist imagined the interior of the Constitutional Convention may have looked like.

 Primary Sources 

Artifacts from the Lewis and Clark Expedition

Objects from the Corps of Discovery from Peabody Museum at Harvard

Objects from the Corps of Discovery from the Missouri Historical Society’s Lewis and Clark: The National Bicentennial Exhibition

Objects from the Corps of Discovery from the Library of Congress

Objects from the Corps of Discovery from Monticello

Lewis and Clark Expedition Map

In May 1804, Lewis and Clark led its Corps of North West Discovery from a camp near St. Louis, Missouri, up the Missouri River. Convinced they could make their entire journey to the Pacific Ocean by water, the crew of about 40 men loaded tons of supplies onto three boats. They packed survey equipment, about 2,000 pounds of flour, 1,000 pounds of hulled corn, almost 2 tons of pork, and 21 bales of goods packed for trade with Native Americans. In addition, each man was armed with powder cartridges and hundreds of lead balls as ammunition. The Lewis and Clark expedition lasted until September 1806 and covered about 8,000 miles of territory.

Louisiana Purchase Exposition at St. Louis

Before Lewis and Clark returned, many of their crates and boxes arrived at the White House in Washington, D.C. An eager President Thomas Jefferson unpacked written reports, hand-drawn maps, animal horns and skeletons, earthenware pots, clay pipes, bows, arrows, plants, soil, mineral specimens, Indian buffalo robes, and other animal skins. Today these and other items from the Corps of Discovery are distributed among the Clark and Lewis families, museums, and other institutions. To mark the expedition’s 200th anniversary, hundreds of these documents, works of art, and artifacts were gathered together again for a national exhibition. In this activity, students will take a closer look at some of these items.  

 

 Background Information 

The Purpose of the Lewis and Clark Expedition

By the time of the Louisiana Purchase in the summer of 1803, Thomas Jefferson had asked United States Army captain Meriwether Lewis to lead an overland exploration of the American West and Pacific Northwest. The Louisiana Purchase increased the expedition’s importance. Originally the goal was to establish trade ties with Native American groups, find a water route to the Pacific Ocean, draw accurate maps of the lands west of the Mississippi, and keep records of scientific interest. This would include recording and collecting samples of previously unknown plants, animals, and minerals. With the Louisiana Purchase, Lewis and Clark added a new responsibility: to announce American sovereignty in the new territory.

 Classroom Activity 

Be a History Mystery Detective: Creating a Lewis and Clark Artifact Map 

1. Post an enlarged copy of a map highlighting the route Lewis and Clark took. Ask students to try and identify the route shown on the map. As you point to random locations along the route, challenge students to give their current names or to identify well-known landmarks.

2. Review with students the purpose of the Lewis and Clark expedition, using the background information above. Then, as preparation for this activity, distribute copies of the artifacts found in the primary source links above. (Two of these artifacts can also be found on page 20 of the Primary Sources Handbook.) Then have students complete the “Go to the Source” worksheet on page 21 of your Primary Sources Handbook.

3. After discussing the worksheet answers with the class, offer each student or team of students a printout of a different artifact from the Lewis and Clark expedition. (The Primary Source links above will take you to sites containing a number of possibilities.) Tell students that they are now to act as historians, trying to determine what their assigned artifact is, and approximately where along their journey Lewis and Clark might have acquired it or would have been most likely to use it. As they attempt to research the origin of the item they are given, suggest that students use these questions as a guide:

• Do you think this item originally belonged to Native Americans, members of the expedition, or someone else? What makes you think so?
• Based on its shape and the materials from which it is made, how do you think this item was used?
• If this item is made from any part of an animal, or is a drawing of an animal, are there certain parts of the country you think this type of animal would most likely be found?
• What, if anything, do you think makes this item historically important? What, if anything, can people learn from it? What makes you think so? 
  

4. Once students have found out or deduced what they can about their assigned item, have children write this information on an index card or sticky note, organizing the data in a structured format like this one:

• WHAT it is:
• WHO the item belonged to:
• WHERE it was found or used:
• WHEN on the expedition was it seen:
• WHY this item is important:
  

5.  After individual students or teams of students explain to the class where along the route of the Lewis and Clark expedition their item originated and why they think so, have students pin their information about the item onto the map near that location. (You may wish to suggest that students set aside a section or the side of the map for items that are associated with more than one area. For example, side fold dresses are clearly associated with Native American women living west and north of the Great Lakes. The Jefferson peace medals that the explorers brought with them as gifts to Native American leaders might have been used at any point along the journey.) Once students have given their reports, share with the class any additional information about the assigned artifacts that is included on the web site that you used. Then discuss as a class the challenges involved in trying to learn about the history of a time period through its artifacts.