Historical Background Thomas Jefferson was a great supporter of westward expansion. One of the greatest achievements during his presidency was the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, which doubled the size of the United States (read more about complex history of the Louisiana Purchase here). People began to move west in great numbers with the newly gained information of the western territory from the Lewis and Clark expedition, the discovery of gold, and the promise of new hope and opportunities. Several dif-ferent trails, such as the Santa Fe Trail and the Oregon Trail, aided in opening the West for settlers. Later, the establishment of the Transcontinental Railroad provided yet another route and means of transportation connect-ing the East to the West. Remnants of the trails still exist today and are both important reminders of American history and contributions to the historical landscape of America.

SUGGESTIONS FOR TEACHERS: The Library of Congress has many different types of primary sources related to westward expansion. Sources can be found in the American Memory Collection and the Prints and Photographs Collection. This primary source set contains a collection of sources on several trails used for westward exploration and expansion: p.2 Lewis & Clark p.3 Santa Fe Trail p.4 Oregon Trail p. 5 Pony Express Trail p. 6 Transcontinental Railroad Have students locate on a map the many different trails and routes used to move people west. What were some of the challenges and struggles people endured while traveling west? How did westward expansion effect Na-tive American communities? Assign each student in the class one of the trails included in this primary source set. Have students create a poster, brochure, or write an essay on their assigned trail. Where was the trail? What are some of the important points of interest on it? Are their any important people associated with the trail? What is the significance of the trail in the overall history of America? Does any of the trail still exist? Have students present their poster, bro-chure, or essay to the class. What did you learn from this activity?

ADDITIONAL LINKS:

Rivers, Edens, Empires: Lewis & Clark and the Revealing of America

Thomas Jefferson: The West (exhibition)

The Louisiana Purchase: A Legislative Timeline (presentation)

Primary Documents in American History: Pacific Railway Act

Built in American Collection (look here for images of the buildings still remaining on the trails)

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Teaching with Primary Sources — MTSU

PRIMARY SOURCE SET WESTWARD EXPANSION

Pony express route April 3, 1860 - October 24, 1861 / W.H. Jackson ; issued by the Union Pacific Railroad Com-pany in commemoration of the Pony Express Centennial, April 3, 1960 - October 24, 1961.

Lewis and Clark

Discovering the legacy of Lewis and Clark : bicentennial commemoration 2003-2006 / preparation route source: Frank Muhly. [2003]

Lewis and Clark map, with annotations in brown ink by Meriwether Lewis, tracing showing the Mis-sissippi, the Missouri for a short distance above Kansas, Lakes Michigan, Superior, and Winnipeg,

and the country onwards to the Pacific [1803?]

Jefferson’s cipher for the Lewis and Clark Expedition[1803 ]

Thomas Jefferson peace medal [1801]

Sitting Rabbit (I Ki Ha Wa He, also known as Little Owl) [Map of Missouri River from South Dakota-North Dakota boundary to mouth of Yellowstone River] [1906-1907]

Thomas Jefferson to Meriwether Lewis, June 20, 1803

Meriwether Lewis, April 20, 1803, Expedition Estimate

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Santa Fe Trail

Santa Fe Trail, Kansas City, MO. [c. 1909]

Santa Fe Route [1825]

Gregg's Commerce of the prairies, or, The journal of a Sante Fe trader, 1831-1839 [1905]

Cottonwood Creek, Sun-day April 10th 1859

Don Jose Albino Baca House, Old Santa Fe Trail, Las Vegas vicinity, San Mi-

guel, NM [c. 1940]

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Oregon Trail

Devil’s Gap, Sweetwater rocks, Sweetwater River, Oregon Trail [between 1880 and 1900?]

Arapahoe camp : Near Casper, Wyo. On the site of the old Oregon Trail [between 1800 and 1910?]

Topographical map of the road from Missouri to Oregon, commencing at the mouth of the Kansas in the Missouri River and ending at the mouth of the Walla-Wallah in the Columbia [1846] Shoemaker overland diary [1850]

Wagon tracks on Old Oregon Trail. Scottsbluff, Nebraska [1941]

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Pony Express Trail

Pony express route April 3, 1860 - October 24, 1861 / W.H. Jackson ; issued by the Union Pacific Railroad Com-pany in commemoration of the Pony Express Centennial, April 3, 1960 - October 24, 1961.

Pony Express Stables, 914 Penn Street, Saint Joseph,

Buchanan, MO [after 1933]

Hollenberg Pony Express Station, Route 243, 6.9 miles south of Nebraska border, Hanover vicinity, Washing-ton, KS [after 1933]

No. 14. Old Fort Bridger - Built by Jim Bridger in 1843 in Wyoming. Served as Pony Express and Telegraph Station and later as an army post.

Granger Stage Station, Old Route 30 North, Granger, Sweetwater, WY [1974]

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Transcontinental Railroad

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John Chinaman on the rail road : Union Pacific Rail Road: From Miscel-laneous Selections : Chinese and Westward Expansion [1867?]

New map of the Union Pacific Railway, the short, quick and safe line to all points west. [1883]

"Work on the Last Mile of the Pacific Rail-road -- Mingling of European with Asiatic

Laborers": From Harper's Weekly: Harper's Weekly, Vol. 13 [1869]

Union Pacific Railroad Company. Progress of Their Road. New York: Brown & Hewitt, Print-er: 1867

CITATIONS: WESTWARD EXPANSION

Teachers: Providing these primary source replicas without source clues may enhance the inquiry experience for students. This list of citations is supplied for reference purposes to you and your students. We have followed the Chicago Manual of Style format, one of the formats recommend-ed by the Library of Congress, for each entry below, minus the access date. The access date for each of these entries is March 4, 2011. Discovering the legacy of Lewis and Clark: bicentennial commemoration 2003-2006/preparation route source: Frank Muhly. Map. Philadel-phia: Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation, 2003. From Library of Congress: Map Collections. http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/gmd:@field(NUMBER+@band(g4127l+ct001114)). King, Nicholas. [Lewis and Clark map, with annotations in brown ink by Meriwether Lewis, tracing showing the Mississippi, the Missouri for a short distance above Kansas, Lakes Michigan, Superior, and Winnipeg, and the county onwards to the Pacific]. Map. c. 1803. From Li-brary of Congress: Map Collections. http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/gmd:@field(NUMBER+@band(g4126s+ct000071)). United States Mint: Thomas Jefferson peace medal, 1801. Special presentation. 1801. Courtesy of the Oklahoma State Museum of History. From Library of Congress: Rivers, Edens, Empires: Lewis & Clark and the Revealing of America. http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/lewisandclark/lewis-landc.html. Jefferson’s cipher for the Lewis and Clark expedition, 1803. 1803. From Library of Congress: Rivers, Edens, Empires: Lewis and Clark and the Revealing of America.http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/lewisandclark/lewis-landc.html. Lewis, Meriwether. Meriwether Lewis, April 20, 1803, Expedition Estimate. 1803. From Library of Congress: The Thomas Jefferson Papers Series 1. General Correspondence. 1651-1827. http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=mtj1&fileName=mtj1page028.db&recNum=182. Jefferson, Thomas. Thomas Jefferson to Meriwether Lewis, June 20, 1803. 1803. Special Presentation. From Library of Congress: Rivers, Edens, Empires: Lewis and Clark and the Revealing of America.http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/lewisandclark/lewis-landc.html. Rabbitt, Sitting. Sitting Rabbit (I Ki Ha Wa He, also known as Little Owl) [Map of Missiouri River from South Dakota-North Dakota boundary to mouth of Yellowstone River], 1906-1907. 1906-1907. Special Presentation. Courtesy of the State Historical Society of North Dakota, Bismark. From Library of Congress: : Rivers, Edens, Empires: Lewis and Clark and the Revealing of America.http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/lewisandclark/lewis-landc.html. “Santa Fe Trail, Kansas City, Mo.” Photograph. c. 1909. From Library of Congress: Panoramic Photographs. http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/pan:@field(NUMBER+@band(pan+6a07230)). Brown, Joseph C. Santa Fe route. Map. 1825. From Library of Congress: Map Collections. http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/gmd:@field(NUMBER+@band(g4052s+ct000190)). Gregg, Josiah. Gregg’s Commerce of the prairies, or, The journal of a Sante Fe trader, 1831-1839. 1831-1839. From Library of Con-gress: American Notes: Travels in America, 1750-1920. http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/lhbtnbib:@field(NUMBER+@od1(lhbtn+th020_0023)). Jenks, Daniel A, artist. “Cottonwood Creek, Sunday April 10th 1859.” Drawing. 1859. From Library of Congress: Drawings (Documentary). http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2004661630/. “Don Jose Albino Baca House, Old Santa Fe Trail, Las Vegas vicinity, San Miguel, NM.” Photograph. From Library of Con-gress: Historic American Building Surveys, Engineering Records, Landscape Surveys. http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/NM0043/. “Devil’s Gap, Sweetwater rocks, Sweetwater River, Oregon Trail.” Photograph. Between 1880 and 1900. From Library of Congress: History of the American West, 1860-1920: Photographs from the Collection of the Denver Public Library. http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/hawp:@field(NUMBER+@band(codhawp+10021920)).

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CITATIONS, cont. “Arapahoe camp: Near Casper, Wyo. On the site of the old Oregon Trail.” Photograph. Between 1880 and 1910. From Library of Congress: History of the American West, 1860-1920: Photographs from the Collection of the Denver Public Library. http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/hawp:@field(NUMBER+@band(codhawp+10032362)). Wolcott, Marion Post, photographer. “Wagon tracks on Old Oregon Trial. Scottsbluff, Nebraska.” Photograph. 1941. From Library of Congress: America from the Great Depression to World War II: Photographs from the FSA-OWI, 1935-1945. http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/fsaall:@field(NUMBER+@band(fsa+8c31720)). Frémont, John Charles. Topographical map of the road from Missouri to Oregon, commencing at the mouth of the Kansas in the Missouri River and ending at the mouth of the Walla-Wallah in the Columbia. Map. 1846. From Library of Congress: Map Collections. http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/gmd:@field(NUMBER+@band(g4127o+mf000054)). Shoemaker overland diary, 1850. Book. 1850. From Library of Congress: Trail to Utah and the Pacific: Diaries and Letters, 1846-1869. http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/upboverbib:@field(DOCID+@lit(dia3408)). Jackson, William Henry. Pony express route April 3, 1860-October 24, 1861/W.H. Jackson; issued by the Union Pacific Railroad Compa-ny in commemoration of the Pony Express Centennial, April 3, 1960-October 24, 1961. Map. 1951. From Library of Congress: Map Collections. http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/gmd:@field(NUMBER+@band(g4051p+tr000221)). “Hollenberg Pony Express Station, Route 243, 6.9 miles south of Nebraska border, Hanover vicinity, Washington, KS.” Photo-graph. 1991. From Library of Congress: Built in America. http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/hh:@field(DOCID+@lit(KS0146)). Jackson, William Henry, artist. “No. 14 Old Fort Bridger—Built by Jim Bridger in 1843 in Wyoming. Served as Pony Express and Telegraph Station and later as an army post.” Watercolor. From Library of Congress: Trails to Utah and the Pacific: Diaries and Letters, 1846 –1869. http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/upboverbib:@field(DOCID+@lit(pho51)). “Granger Stage Station, Old Route 30 North, Granger, Sweetwater, WY.” Photograph. From Library of Congress: Built in America. http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/hh:@field(DOCID+@lit(WY0029)). Boucher, Jack E., photographer. “Pony Express Stables, 914 Penn Street, Saint Joseph, Buchanan, MO.” Photograph. after 1933. From Library of Congress: Built in America. http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/hh:@field(DOCID+@lit(MO1103)). Anthony, E & H. T., photographic firm. “John Chinaman on the rail road: Union Pacific Rail Road: From Miscellaneous Selec-tions: Chinese and Westward Expansion.” Photograph. c. 1867. From Library of Congress: The Chinese in California, 1850-1925. http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/cic:@field(DOCID+@lit(brk3107)). New Map of the Union Pacific Railway, the short, quick and safe line to all points west. Map. Chicago: Rand McNally and Company, 1883. From Library of Congress: Map Collections. http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/gmd:@field(NUMBER+@band(g3701p+rr005950)). “’Work on the Last Mile of the Pacific Railroad—Mingling of European with Asiatic Laborers’: From Harper’s Weekly: Harper’s Weekly, Vol. 13.” Harper’s Magazine Co., 1869. From Library of Congress: The Chinese in California, 1850-1925. http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/cic:@field(DOCID+@lit(brk5355)). Union Pacific Railroad Company. Progress on Their Road. New York: Brown & Hewitt, 1867. From Library of Congress: Rivers, Edens, Empires: Lewis & Clark and the Revealing of America. http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/lewisandclark/lewis-after.html.

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