Expéditions

1802 · 72327 — London: A. Arrowsmith 1802. A fine and high quality facsimile of this seminal map commissioned in 2001 by renown Lewis & Clark collector Roger Wendlick. Backed on canvas and measuring 150 x 58 inches in color Wendlick commissioned the firm of Ford Graphics of Portland to make this map. Only 21 copies were made and this is the last one with a letter from Wendlick attesting to this fact. Fine. "The 1802 revision of the map of North America on display delineates the complete length of the Missouri River as well as Mackenzie's journey to the Pacific in 1793. The depiction of the Missouri headwaters which Arrowsmith studied from Peter Fidler's drawing of a map by the Blackfoot Indian Ac Ko Mo Ki shows several streams joining into two branches of the Missouri which flow almost due east. The southern branch of the Missouri appears to be the main branch of the river and connects to the Knife River; the northern branch is a good representation of the actual course of the Missouri.Although the revised map still shows a single ridge of mountains in the west a note near the southern sources of the Missouri states: "Hereabout the Mountains divide into several low Ridges." This note which was based on the reports of Fidler Mackenzie and Thompson was more encouraging to Jefferson and Lewis than the note about the Stony Mountains on the 1795 map which unfortunately turned out to be more accurate. Arrowsmith's map situates the Great Lake River on the western slopes of the mountain range and connects this river to the Columbia River with a dotted line. Since another note claims that this river can be descended to the sea in eight days the Arrowsmith map supported the erroneous belief in a convenient route to the Pacific Ocean.Both the 1795 and 1802 versions of Arrowsmith's map served as resources that Nicholas King consulted as he prepared his map for the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Lewis and Clark in fact carried the 1802 Arrowsmith map along on the expedition. Thomas Jefferson owned the 1802 map as well as an 1802 edition of Arrowsmith's map of the United States. Arrowsmith's 1802 map of North America was the most comprehensive map of the West available to Jefferson and Lewis and it was probably the most important map used in the planning of the expedition." University of VirginiaAaron Arrowsmith's 1802 map was the most current and accurate cartographic representation of the American West available to Lewis on the eve of the journey. Lewis studied this edition closely during the summer of 1803 and even carried a copy on the first leg of the expedition. Among Arrowsmith's sources were Indian maps reports and manuscript maps from the British fur trade and British Navy exploration reports and charts of the Pacific Coast. But various elements in the map reinforced Jefferson's misconceptions of western geography among these were depictions of the Rocky Mountains as a single long chain and the headwaters of the upper Missouri River at the eastern edge of the Rockies suggesting those mountains were readily portaged. A. Arrowsmith unknown