The Lewis and Clark expedition did not have the luxury of space or time to accommodate dedicated illustrators or artists, but the captains did include several sketches in their journals. Clark’s drawing of a eulachon is especially popular among Lewis and Clark enthusiasts. At the Missouri’s Great Fall, Lewis made a sketch in hopes a skilled illustrator such as John James Barralet could capture its majesty.
Due to the relative paucity of illustrations in the journals, Lewis and Clark storytellers rely on the drawings, paintings, engravings, statuary, and photographs of early travelers and modern interpreters. Listed here are some of those artists with indexes of their artwork.
L&C Artist Indexes
During the winter of 1807-1808, Pursh lived at the home of Bernard McMahon in Philadelphia. Here he worked on the drawings and descriptions of Lewis’s western plants.
Split Rock Studios
Split Rock Studios created a series of thirty-eight paintings interpreting the Lewis and Clark Expedition’s journey. Several paintings, photographed by Kristopher K. Townsend, illustrate pages on this website.
Charles Fritz
“Historical accuracy is paramount, but there is another obvious component: the art itself . . . . In 100 Paintings Illustrating the Journals of Lewis and Clark, I sought to communicate the storyline accurately.”
Karl Bodmer
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Swiss artist Karl Bodmer, was employed by Prince Maximillian von Wied (1809-1893) to accompany him on a journey to the upper Missouri River. By virtue of the timing of the 1832 trip, his drawings—and the paintings and engravings derived from them—have also become associated with the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
The Audubon Family
John James Audubon drew inspiration from Lewis and Clark’s writings and aided by his sons, published Quadrupeds of North America with 150 hand-colored plates.
Charles M. Russell
Born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1864, Charles M. (“Charlie”) Russell arrived in Montana as a 16-year-old youth, intent on fulfilling his dream of becoming a real, working cowboy. Lewis and Clark Meeting the Flatheads, painted in 1912, is Russell’s largest work.
Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin (1770–1852) was a portrait artist whose works include Lewis, Clark, Chief Sheheke and his wife Yellow Corn.
Gustavus Sohon
Gustavus Sohon was a U.S. Army artist for several government-sponsored expeditions, most notably the one led by Isaac Stevens in 1853-1855 to locate potential railroad routes to the Pacific Coast. His hand-tinted lithographs of Western scenes remained an important basis for popular perceptions of the Far West.
America’s greatest ornithologist, John James Audubon, was just starting his career when Lewis and Clark returned, and there is ample evidence that he drew inspiration from Lewis and Clark’s writings.
William Birch
by Charles F. Reed
The Philadelphia buildings Birch portrayed have in turn tended to be those that have been preserved, restored or reconstructed, preserving a period when an epic expansion began its exploratory trickle.
Michael Haynes
Michael Haynes’ artwork has been enjoyed by even the most casual Lewis and Clark fan in publications, museum displays, historical re-enactments, and hundreds of interpretive signs along the historic trail.
F. Jay Haynes
by Joseph A. Mussulman
Many of the first photos in present Montana were by F. Jay Haynes. His story reflects the emergence of photography itself.
Paul Kane
Paul Kane painted in the Canadian Northwest which then included the Hudson’s Bay Columbia District. His field sketches, notes, and paintings are a valuable resource for ethnologists.
George Catlin
His curiosity sparked by Lewis and Clark artifacts displayed at Peale’s American Museum, George Catlin (1796–1872) began painting American Indians with a trip up the Mississippi with General Clark in 1830. He expanded his travels creating over 500 paintings.
Charles Willson Peale
Peale’s Museum showcased the natural treasures of the new country such as mastodon fossils from Big Bone Lick and the first public display of artifacts from the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
Roger Cooke
Historical artist Roger Cooke worked with the Washington State Historical Society to recreate several Lewis and Clark scenes during their trek in Washington and Oregon. His artwork is featured on many interpretive signs at waysides throughout this section of the historic trail.
John Mix Stanley
The American portraitist, artist and illustrator John Mix Stanley (1814-1872), served as one of the official artists with the Stevens railroad survey party to the Northwest. His record of highlights along the route often combined documentary verisimilitude with romantic fantasy.
John James Barralet
Lewis probably showed Barralet his own sketches of the “stronger features” of the Great Fall of the Missouri and did his best to refine the details verbally, striving to recapture the essence of the “sublime” he had recognized in the scene.
Olin Wheeler
Wheeler’s The Trail of Lewis and Clark, 1804-1904 contained photographic reproductions of 8 portraits; 8 photos of important artifacts, 15 maps, 24 manuscript documents, and 24 copies of paintings by prominent American and Euro-American artists.
Steve Ludeman
Watercolors and sketches
Steve Ludeman’s watercolors illustrate the Lewis and Clark Expedition’s beginnings from the Eastern seaboard, down the Ohio, and up the Mississippi on their way to winter camp at River Dubois (Wood River) across from St. Louis.
Edward Sheriff Curtis’s monumental collection of photographs was intended to be the ultimate documentation of the then-apparent end of traditional Indian life-ways. The consummation of thirty years’ work, it was enabled by substantial patronage from the wealthy financier J. P. Morgan.
Edgar S. Paxson
by Joseph A. Mussulman
Edgar Paxson captured the essence of the fast-disappearing Old West as he personally experienced it. In 1895, he painted “Over the Trail of Lewis and Clark,” his first known scene from that episode in western history.
Wayne Wilson
While Wayne has been sketching and painting since high school, it was not until his first paddle trip in 2011 that he started keeping what you would call a ‘Travel Journal’. Watercolors from his Columbia, Missouri, and Yellowstone canoe trips are featured here.
Henry Warre
As part of his secretive instructions from the British government in 1845, Warre made sketches documenting indigenous people of that era.
Alfred E. Mathews
Mathews’ reputation still falls somewhat short of greatness in the regard of art historians. Nevertheless, his own self-published lithographs of Colorado and Montana have grown more and more valuable as documentaries of Western topography and history, as the decades have passed. Several of his lithographs are featured on this site.
Experience the Lewis and Clark Trail
The Lewis and Clark Trail Experience—our sister site at lewisandclark.travel—connects the world to people and places on the Lewis and Clark Trail.
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.
This site is provided as a public service by the
Lewis and Clark Trail Alliance
with cooperation and funding from the following organizations:
- Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail
- Montana Committee for the Humanities
- Idaho Governor's Lewis and Clark Trail Committee
- The Capital Gallery (Lewis and Clark Fort Mandan Foundation)
- Yellowstone Public Radio
Unless otherwise noted, journal excerpts are from The Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, edited by Gary E. Moulton, 13 vols. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1983-2001).