National Park Service
U.S. Department of Interior
Jefferson National Expansion Memorial

THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE: AN INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE

Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, in conjunction with the Missouri Historical Society, the Citizenship Education Clearing House and the Center for International Studies at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, and the Spanish Colonial Research Center of the National Park Service, conducted a symposium on March 21-23, 2002, entitled “The Louisiana Purchase: An International Perspective.”  The symposium was the second in a series of four to be held in St. Louis to commemorate the Bicentennial of the Louisiana Purchase and the Lewis and Clark Expedition.  The emphasis of the sessions of this three day symposium was on the interactions of the many ethnic and national groups in the Mississippi and Missouri river valleys before and after the purchase of Louisiana by the United States in 1803.  The seminar focused on the changes wrought by the transfer of Louisiana upon colonial administrators, habitants, American Indian nations, the military, women, traders and others on both sides of the Mississippi River.  The seminar also addressed the political events leading to the Louisiana Purchase, Jefferson’s dream of an expanding West, the role of Spain in administering Louisiana, early Spanish and French exploration of the West and later commemorations of the Louisiana Purchase. 

The Louisiana Purchase: An International Perspective
A Symposium held in St. Louis, Missouri, March 21-23, 2002

Presented by Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, the Citizenship Education Clearing House and the Center for International Studies at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, the Spanish Colonial Research Center of the National Park Service and the Missouri Historical Society

Day 1 – Thursday, March 21, 2002 – Sessions in Lee Auditorium at the Missouri Historical Society Museum, Jefferson Memorial Building, Forest Park
 
Overview Paper, the Louisiana Purchase – Ralph Lewis

The Louisiana Purchase Treaty
 
Keynote Speaker – Jon Kukla, Executive Vice-President of the Patrick Henry Memorial Foundation 1803: Midpoint of American History
 
Morning Sessions – Politics and the Purchase
Donald Heidenreich, Lindenwood University Louisiana: U.S. National Security and Politics, 1789-1803
Peter Kastor, Washington University Expansion and its Aftermaths: The Effect of the Purchase on American Life and Politics, 1803-1848
 
Morning Sessions – American Indians and the Purchase
Larry Cebula, Missouri Southern State College “Everything About Them Was Strange”: Religious Encounters in the Exploration of the Northwest
Kathleen DuVal, McNeil Center for Early American Studies, University of Pennsylvania “Ruthless Savages” and “Respectable People”: American Indians Respond to the Louisiana Purchase
Amy Mossett, Fort Berthold Community College, Three Affiliated Tribes Jefferson’s Vision and Tribal People Today
 
Afternoon Sessions – The People of the Louisiana and Indiana Territories
Susan Calafate Boyle, National Park Service, Rocky Mountain National Park French and Indian Women in Colonial Missouri: Cultural Integration and Marital Alliances
Jenny Turner, University of Wisconsin-Madison Imposing Decency Upon the Land: The Americanization of Colonial St. Louis
Dr. Denise Wilson, Lafayette, Indiana “The People Do Not Relish a Free Government”: The French Response to American Laws and Lawmakers
 
Roundtable Discussion – Let’s Find the Wheel, Not Invent It: Making Use of Colonial Archives in St. Louis Emily Jaycox, Missouri Historical Society, Session Chair; Marianne Samayoa, UMSL Museum Studies Program, Chief Presenter
 
 
Day 2 – Friday, March 22, 2002 – Morning, University of Missouri, St. Louis – Chapel, Provincial House
 
Morning Sessions – The French Inhabitants of Early St. Louis
Carl Ekberg A French Critique of Creole Upper Louisiana in 1797
Martha Saxton, Amherst College The Moral Minority: Prescriptive Literature in Early St. Louis
 
Morning Sessions – The Spanish and the Purchase
María Luisa Pérez-González – An Overview of the Spanish Interest in Louisiana
Juan Romero de Terreros Louisiana, as Seen from 18th Century Texas
 
Afternoon, Daniel Boone Campus of Lindenwood University
 
Afternoon Sessions – Lifestyles at the Time of the Purchase
J. Frederick Fausz The Material Culture of the Fur Trade
Dan Hechenberger, Director of Education, Nipundikan Etienne de Vénard, Sieur de Bourgmont – From Deserter to Nobility, While Mapping the Lower Missouri in the 1720s
Dr. Denise Wilson and Michael Lewis (Traveler’s Dream), Lafayette, Indiana Music of the Frontier: French and American Traditional Songs
Ken Kamper, Historian, Daniel Boone Campus Daniel Boone in Missouri
 
 
Day 3 – Saturday, March 23, 2002 – Westin Hotel at Cupples Station
 
Keynote – Peter Onuf, University of Virginia Jefferson and the Louisiana Purchase
 
Morning Sessions – Early Exploration of the Louisiana Purchase
W. Raymond Wood, University of Missouri – Columbia Prologue to Lewis and Clark: The Travels of James Mackay and John Evans, 1795-1797
F. Terry Norris, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Thomas Hutchins and the Northwest Passage
Joseph P. Sanchez, Spanish Colonial Research Center Early Spanish Exploration in the Louisiana Territory
 
Afternoon Sessions – Legacies of the Louisiana Purchase
Joseph P. Sanchez, Spanish Colonial Research Center The Louisiana Purchase and the Boundary of 1819: In Search of the Western Boundary of the Louisiana Territory
Rev. William Barnaby Faherty, Director, The Museum of the Western Jesuit Missions The Louisiana Purchase: The Irish Response
 
Afternoon Sessions – Legacies of the Louisiana Purchase
Brian McCutchen, Historian, National Park Service Documenting a Flowing Landscape: The Cultural Landscape of the Post of Arkansas, 1686 to 1863
Elizabeth Gentry Sayad, Co-Chair, National Committee for the Bicentennial of the Louisiana Purchase The Louisiana Purchase: Celebrations and Legacies
 

To view the text of the treaty between the United States of America and the French Republic click here.