On or near this day, Pvt. Robert Frazer publishes his prospectus promising the publication of his journal of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Subscribers are asked to pay three dollars.
“A map of the discoveries of Capt. Lewis & Clark from the Rockey mountain and the River Lewis to the Cap of Disappointement Or the Coloumbia River at the north Pacific Ocean by observation of Robert Frazer”
Detail showing the “great portage” and “Rockey Mountains”
Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/item/2004626119/.
Other than this highly inaccurate map which was published some time after his prospectus, no trace of Frazer’s journal is known to exist.
Frazer’s Prospectus
Proposal for Publishing by Subscription Robert Frazers Journal From St. Louis in Louisiana to the Pacific Ocean
Containing
An accurate description of the Missouri and its several branches; of the mountains seperating the Eastern from the Western waters; of the Columbia River and the Bay it forms on the Pacific Ocean; of the face of the country in general; of the several Tribes of Indians on the Missouri and Columbia Rivers; of the vegetable, animal and [mineral] productions discovered in those Extensive regions. The Latitudes and Longitudes of some of the most remarkable places—
Together with
a variety of Curious and interesting occurrences during a voyage of two years four months and nine days; conducted by Captns. Lewis & Clarke.
Published by Permission of
Captn. Meriwether Lewis—This work will be contained in about four Hundred pages Octavo and will be put to the press so soon as there shall be a sufficient subscription to defray the expenses.
Price to subscribers three Dollars.[1]Donald Jackson, ed. Letters of the Lewis and Clark Expedition with Related Documents 1783-1854; 2nd ed., 2 vols. (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1978), 1:345.
This was the very first announcement of a published journal from the Lewis and Clark Expedition, predating both Patrick Gass‘s and Meriwether Lewis‘s announcements. John R. McBride—a Franklin, Missouri neighbor of Robert Frazer who preserved a copy of the prospectus—said he read the manuscript in the 1820s and found it “was in many respects more interesting than that of his commanders”.[2]John R. McBride, “Pioneer Days in the Mountains”, Tullidge’s Quarterly Magazine of Utah, 3 (July 1884) in Letters, 1:346n.
Notes
| ↑1 | Donald Jackson, ed. Letters of the Lewis and Clark Expedition with Related Documents 1783-1854; 2nd ed., 2 vols. (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1978), 1:345. |
|---|---|
| ↑2 | John R. McBride, “Pioneer Days in the Mountains”, Tullidge’s Quarterly Magazine of Utah, 3 (July 1884) in Letters, 1:346n. |
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Discover More
- The Lewis and Clark Expedition: Day by Day by Gary E. Moulton (University of Nebraska Press, 2018). The story in prose, 14 May 1804–23 September 1806.
- The Lewis and Clark Journals: An American Epic of Discovery (abridged) by Gary E. Moulton (University of Nebraska Press, 2003). Selected journal excerpts, 14 May 1804–23 September 1806.
- The Lewis and Clark Journals. by Gary E. Moulton (University of Nebraska Press, 1983–2001). The complete story in 13 volumes.
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