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The story of the records of the transcontinental exploration of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark (1803–1806) is almost as romantic as that of the great discovery itself.

In his detailed instructions to Lewis, dated June 20, 1803, President Jefferson displayed particular concern for the journals of the proposed expedition to the Pacific, which, with all possible scientific data, were to be prepared "with great pains & accuracy, to be entered distinctly & intelligibly for others as well as yourself." The notes of the two captains were to be guarded against loss by making copies of them—"one of these copies [to] be written on the paper of the birch, as less liable to injury from damp than common paper." Not only were Lewis and Clark to keep such journals, but their men were encouraged to do likewise.

The two leaders faithfully performed their duty in this regard, and the four sergeants—Charles Floyd, Patrick Gass, John Ordway, and Nathaniel Pryor—also wrote journals. Tradition has it that at least three of the twenty-three privates were, as well, diarists upon the expedition, but the only private's notebook now known to us is that of Joseph Whitehouse.