U.S. History: William Clark Papers Collection Added to Kansas Historical Society’s Online Archives

The William Clark Papers Collection was recently added to Kansas Memory, the Kansas Historical Society’s online archives of documents, books, and photos. Clark, along with Meriwether Lewis, led an expedition west to the Pacific Ocean and was later appointed Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the Territory of Upper Louisiana. The collection dates from 1807 through 1855, and includes surveys of Indian reservations, account books, treaties, meteorological data, and the records of the Missouri Fur Company.
The collection may be viewed at kansasmemory.org/category/5174.
The Kansas Historical Society acquired most of this collection in the 1880s when John Speer, a former director of the Historical Society, found a stack of leather-bound volumes outside a used bookstore in Lawrence. Speer contacted Judge Franklin George Adams, secretary at the Historical Society, and the volumes were purchased for $33.
Partial funding for the digitization of these records was provided by the National Park Service.