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Lewis
And Clark And The American West: University Of Virginia Resources
December 3, 2002--
A thousand miles east of the Mississippi River, the University
of Virginia has a special interest in the American West and the
Lewis and Clark Expedition that changed the region’s fate.
Both leaders of the great transcontinental journey were Virginians
and Thomas Jefferson, chief architect of the westward exploration,
also founded U.Va. As the 200th anniversary commemoration of the
expedition unfolds in coming months, beginning Jan. 18 in Charlottesville,
numerous scholars and special programs at U.Va. are contributing
to public understanding about the nation’s expansion to the
West.
Following
are several U.Va. authorities on aspects of the West who can offer
expertise for news or feature stories:
JEFFERSON
AND THE EXPEDITION’S BACKGROUND
Peter S. Onuf, the Thomas Jefferson Foundation Professor
of History, (434) 924-6383 A leading scholar of Jefferson
and his era, Onuf is the author of “Jefferson’s Empire:
the Language of American Nationhood.” He has helped direct
a year-long interdisciplinary faculty seminar on the American West
and many related Lewis and Clark projects.
ENVIRONMENTAL
AND CULTURAL HISTORY OF THE WEST
Douglas Seefeldt, Woodrow Wilson postdoctoral fellow in the humanities
and director of U.Va.’s Lewis and Clark Bicentennial Project,
(434) 243-7707 Seefeldt co-teaches a central course, “American
Wests,” about the many ways the West must be seen to understand
it. He also teaches “Media and the Mythic West” and
works with students on numerous projects about Lewis and Clark and
public memory of the expedition.
NATIVE AMERICAN ENCOUNTERS WITH EUROPEANS
Jeffrey Hantman, associate professor of anthropology and
archaeology, (434) 924-3953 Hantman co-teaches “American
Wests” with Onuf and Seefeldt and is an authority on the early
relations between Europeans and native peoples, both in Jefferson’s
Virginia and the West.
THE LITERARY WEST
Frank Papovich, assistant dean of Arts and Sciences, (434)
924-3350 A Western literature expert, Papovich motorcycled
the entire Lewis and Clark route with his son and also visited and
photographed numerous sites associated with later writers about
the West. He has created a Web archive on western literary sites
and will teach a course on “The Literary Legacy of Lewis and
Clark.”
THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE
Olivier Zunz, professor of history, (434) 924-6390
With Onuf, Zunz is organizing “The Louisiana Purchase
in French-American Perspective,” an international conference
to mark the 2003 bicentennial of America’s purchase of vast
western territory from France. The conference is scheduled to convene
in Paris in June and in Charlottesville in October. It will showcase
important new scholarship from both countries on the history of
France in America and on the expansion of the new nation into formerly
French territory.
EARLY
VIEWS OF NATURE AND GEOGRAPHY
Mike Furlough, director of the U.Va. Library’s Geospatioal
and Statistical Data Center, (434) 924-3169 and Earl Mark, director
of computer technologies in the Architecture School, (434) 924-6438
With Seefeldt, they are developing a digital-history project devoted
to understanding the naturaal world and landscape that Lewis, Clark
and Jefferson knew before the expedition. “Encountering the
West: the Changing Vision of Lewis, Clark and Jefferson” will
shed light on how early views of nature and geography were severely
challenged by what the expedition encountered in the West.
U.VA.’S LEWIS AND CLARK BICENTENNIAL PROJECT
For links to many other U.Va. and national resources on Lewis and
Clark, see the U.Va. Lewis and Clark Bicentennial Project Web site
at http://www.vcdh.virginia.edu/lewisandclark/
Contact:
Bob Brickhouse, (434) 924-6856
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