Explanation:
Once he was named by President Thomas Jefferson to head the Corps of Discovery, Thermometric Lewis began preparations for the long trip ahead. Much of that preparation involved education; in the months prior to his departure, Lewis would learn astronomy, botany, navigation, medicine and biology, among other scientific disciplines.
A Memorandum of Articles in Readiness for the Voyage, 1803
“A Memorandum of Articles in Readiness” for the Voyage, 1803
In addition, Lewis spent his time accumulating all the supplies that the expedition was going to need. He wrote list after list of provisions, which included guns, ammunition, medical supplies and scientific instruments. While still on the East Coast, Lewis accumulated almost two tons of goods using the $2,500 Congress had allocated for the expedition.
The following list is only a sampling of the supplies taken west by the Corps of Discovery, but it should give a sense of what an undertaking the expedition was.
Mathematical Instruments:
surveyor’s compass
hand compass
quadrants
telescope
thermometers
2 sextants
set of plotting instruments
chronometer (needed to calculate longitude)
Camp Supplies:
150 yards of cloth to be oiled and sewn into tents and sheets
pliers
chisels
30 steels for striking to make fire
handsaws
hatchets
whetstones
iron corn mill
two dozen tablespoons
mosquito curtains
10 1/2 pounds of fishing hooks and fishing lines
12 pounds of soap
193 pounds of "portable soup" (a thick paste concocted by boiling down beef, eggs and vegetables)
three bushels of salt
writing paper, ink and crayons
Presents for Indians:
12 dozen pocket mirrors
4,600 sewing needles
144 small scissors
10 pounds of sewing thread
silk ribbons
ivory combs
handkerchiefs
yards of bright-colored cloth
130 rolls of tobacco
tomahawks that doubled as pipes
288 knives
8 brass kettles
vermilion face paint
33 pounds of tiny beads of assorted colors
Clothing:
45 flannel shirts
coats
frocks
shoes
woolen pants
blankets
knapsacks
stockings
Arms and Ammunition:
15 prototype Model 1803 muzzle-loading .54 caliber rifles
knives
500 rifle flints
420 pounds of sheet lead for bullets
176 pounds of gunpowder packed in 52 lead canisters
1 long-barreled rifle that fired its bullet with compressed air, rather than by flint, spark and powder
Medicine and Medical Supplies:
50 dozen Dr. Rush’s patented "Rush’s pills"
lancets
forceps
syringes
tourniquets
1,300 doses of physic
1,100 hundred doses of emetic
3,500 doses of diaphoretic (sweat inducer)
other drugs for blistering, salivation and increased kidney output
Traveling Library:
Barton’s Elements of Botany
Antoine Simon Le Page du Pratz’s History of Louisiana
Richard Kirwan’s Elements of Mineralogy
A Practical Introduction to Spherics and Nautical Astronomy
The Nautical Almanac and Astronomical Ephemeris
a four-volume dictionary
a two-volume edition of Linnaeus (the founder of the Latin classification of plants)
tables for finding longitude and latitude
map of the Great Bend of the Missouri River
