Project Description

In 1998 Lewis and Clark College acquired the Roger D. Wendlick Collection on Lewis and Clark. This is the finest collection ever assembled by a single person in the history of collecting books on the Expedition. Over an eighteen-year period Wendlick devoted his life to assembling this premier collection. Not content with collecting nearly all titles published on the Corps of Discovery, Wendlick procured maps consulted and carried by the Expedition, books consulted and carried by the explorers, and relevant books on earlier and later westward explorations. All copies are either first editions, or the same edition copies that Lewis and Clark carried or studied.

Highlights of this collection include:

  • All known publications of the journals in any language, including German, French, English and Dutch
  • David McKeehan’s family copy of Patrick Gass 1807 edition of hisjournal (McKeehan was the publisher and editor of the Gass journal, and last person known to have the manuscript of the Gass journal.)
  • William Dunbar’s family copy of Patrick Gass 1807 edition of the journal (William Dunbar was an explorer and contemporary of Lewis & Clark.)
  • Same edition copies of books carried by the Expedition, including: Benjamin Barton’s Elements of Botany, 1803; Mineralogy by Richard Kirwan, 1784; Views of Louisiana by Le Page Du Pratz, 1763; Journal of Andrew Ellicott by Andrew Ellicott, 180

The Wendlick Collection also includes maps consulted or carried by the Expedition. Among them are maps by: Cook, MacKenzie, Vancouver, Arrowsmith, and Sennex.

To learn more about Wendlick’s life and collecting career: