On July 4, 1803, President Jefferson wrote Lewis’s official orders to head west, eventually meeting the expedition at St. Louis in May of 1804 to begin the arduous journey. In his letter, the president told Clark, “In the journey which you are about to undertake for the discovery of the course and source of the Mississippi and of the most convenient water communication from thence to the Pacific Ocean, your party being small, it is to be expected that you will encounter considerable dangers...” ⁵

President Jefferson used the Entrance Hall of the White House to showcase objects brought back east from the expedition, and from another western expedition conducted by Zebulon Pike from 1806 to 1807. ⁶ The journals from the Lewis and Clark expedition describe packing objects for shipment back to Washington. On April 4, 1805 for example, the expedition packed into boxes examples of mountain ram and elk horns in addition to various Native American objects to be sent back east including a buffalo robe, depicting a battle between several Native American tribes. ⁷ In September of 1806, Lewis and Clark returned to Camp Dubois near St. Louis. Shortly after his arrival, he wrote to President Jefferson in Washington, “It is with pleasure that I announce to you the safe arrival of myself and party. . . In obedience to your orders we have penetrated the Continent of North America to the Pacific Ocean, and sufficiently explored the interior of the country.” ⁸

These initial journeys westward represented the desire to move American settlements and communities well beyond the Mississippi River. The centrality of the White House in both planning and in the later display of artifacts sent from these expeditions highlights the national character of the early stages of American westward expansion.