Lewis and Clark

First published in 1969, Lewis and Clark: Pioneering Naturalists remains the most comprehensive account of the scientific studies carried out by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark during their overland expedition to the Pacific Northwest and back in 1804–6. Summaries of the animals, plants, topographical features, and Indian tribes encountered are included at the end of each chapter devoted to the particular leg of the journey. A distinguished biologist, Paul Russell Cutright will be remembered for this landmark contribution to our understanding of the world that the expedition observed and recorded.

Paul Russell Cutright (1897–1988) was a historian and a zoologist who wrote extensively on American natural history. Paul A. Johnsgard is Foundation Professor Emeritus of Biological Sciences at the University of Nebraska. His forty-two books include The Nature of Nebraska: Ecology and Biodiversity and Crane Music: A Natural History of American Cranes, both available from the University of Nebraska Press.

“[Cutright] has added a wealth of scientific detail in a style that will please historian and naturalist alike. . . . Over fifty pages of triple-columned appendixes make the scientific examination even more impressive. The medical aspects of the expedition are interestingly discussed.”—Journal of American History