Whitehouse Journals

Front cover of the Whitehouse paraphrased journal.  

Edward E. Ayer Digital Collection, Newberry Library.  

Gary E. Moulton wrote in the introduction of volume 11 of the massive work he edited, “The journals of the Lewis and Clark expedition are one of our country's national treasures.”

While President Jefferson did not order the actual keeping of separate journals by anyone other than the captains, we know at least one private kept a journal -- Joseph Whitehouse. (It’s believed that Private Robert Frazier also wrote, but his journal has never been found.)

Whitehouse’s original journal begins the day the Corps shoved off from Camp River Dubois, May 14, 1804. However, it abruptly ends November 6, 1805. It has been suggested by historians that Whitehouse gave up writing his journal because writing was too much of a burden for a man of his limited education.

On his deathbed, Whitehouse gave this original journal to a Catholic priest, Canon di Vivaldi, probably around 1860. Later, when the priest borrowed money from a woman, Gertrude Haley of San Francisco, he gave her the journal in return. Through the years, the journal passed into various hands, including those of the New York Historical Society. Haley regained possession and tried to sell it to the Library of Congress, but her asking price was too great. Finally, Dodd, Mead and Company purchased it for the use of Reuben Gold Thwaites in his edition of the expedition journals in 1904.

Fortunately, in February 1966, Professor George White, a geologist from the University of Illinois–Urbana, visited a Philadelphia bookstore where he was shown the manuscript of a journal by Joseph Whitehouse. White told of his find to a university colleague, Donald Jackson, editor of the “Letters of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.”

Upon returning to St. Louis in the fall of 1806, Whitehouse had prepared by a copyist this new and expanded journal which included entries from May 14, 1804, to April 6, 1806, with the intent of having it published. This paraphrased version of the original journal includes a preface and fills in some gaps lacking in the original.

Just before the entry of March 23, 1806, there is a heading, "Volume 2nd,” which many historians believe indicates that Whitehouse may have intended to continue this paraphrased journal through September 23, 1806, the Corps’ return to St. Louis.

Both the original and paraphrased journals reside in the collection of the Newberry Library in Chicago.

Photo: Front cover of the Whitehouse paraphrased journal.

Edward E. Ayer Digital Collection, Newberry Library.

Alt Text: A photograph of the worn and tattered cover of Whitehouse’s paraphrased journal. Handwritten in dark ink: Journal of Captains Lewis and Clark’s Expedition, Written by Joseph Whitehouse.