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College acquires world's finest known
private
collection on Lewis and Clark Expedition
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On the eve of the 200th anniversary of the Lewis and Clark Expedition (2003-2006), Lewis & Clark College has acquired the Roger Wendlick Collection, the finest known private collection in the world of printed materials related to the Corps of Discovery. This exceptional collection, coupled with the College's existing holdings, give the College one of the premier research libraries on the Lewis and Clark Expedition found anywhere. The Roger Wendlick collection consists of more than 1,000 individual pieces, including maps, manuscripts, pamphlets and newspapers. Some of the items are extremely rare. "President Jefferson's charge to Meriwether Lewis and William Clark was indeed to open a commercial route to the sea," said Michael Mooney, Lewis & Clark College president. "But it was also to answer, if only preliminarily, an encyclopedia of questions, from botany to zoology, from ethnography to vulcanology. The results of the expedition, from its everyday trials to its startling discoveries, were set down by the explorers in journals, and their publication in this country and several languages abroad galvanized the world." President Jefferson required all members of the expedition to keep journals: Meriwether Lewis, William Clark, Patrick Gass, Joseph Whitehouse, John Ordway, Charles Floyd and Robert Frazer, whose journal was lost. Gass was the first to publish his journal in 1807. The College's holdings include all known printed editions of every diary and journal kept by members of the expedition, including variant editions and foreign language editions. The Wendlick Collection contains two of eight located copies of the Gass journal in German and the only known condensed version of the Gass journal in German, printed in 1811 in Vienna. The collection also includes 12 maps of the American West contemporaneous with the Expedition, several of which are identical to those carried by the explorers, and 14 newspapers from 1803 to 1807, reporting the departure and return of the Corps of Discovery. One of Wendlick's last purchases was an 1803 newspaper with an article reporting a Congressional appropriation of $2,500 to fund an unnamed secret expedition.
The College's special Western Americana Collection started in the 1970s, when Mr. and Mrs. Laurence Shaw presented the College with Edward Beinecke's personal copy of the rare Biddle-Allen edition of the journals of Lewis and Clark in original boards published in two volumes in 1814. In 1984, the College received a gift from Drs. Eldon G. and Robert Chuinard that broadened and deepened its holdings substantially. The Chuinard Collection includes articles, secondary works, a special illustrated edition of the journals and field notes of the Expedition. "The superb materials contained in the Wendlick Collection are of highest quality and complement and greatly enrich the College's existing holdings," said Mooney. "The beneficiaries of this collection extend beyond our own students and faculty to include anyone with a deep interest in the Corps of Discovery." The Wendlick Collection is the labor of love of Roger Wendlick, a heavy equipment construction worker, whose efforts to acquire these exquisite materials sometimes put him in near financial crisis. "It was either a passion or an addiction," Wendlick contends. "My goal was to have the most complete library in private ownership. By all accounts, I accomplished that." Wendlick's fascination with the Lewis and Clark Expedition began when he was in grade school and visited the salt cairn at Seaside that the explorers used while wintering at Fort Clatsop. When Wendlick's grandmother died 25 years ago, she left him a souvenir plate from the 1905 Lewis and Clark Trade and Oriental Exposition in Portland. That initiated a collection of memorabilia totaling 1,200 pieces. When his interest in the exposition waned, he turned his passion to Lewis and Clark and their journals. Wendlick began by using a bibliography compiled by Dr. E.G. Chuinard that he obtained during a symposium on the American Enlightenment at Lewis & Clark College in 1984. "I used the bibliography as a checklist. Then I purchased other bibliographies and began filling in the collection."
Through the years, Wendlick came to know almost every major Western Americana bookseller in the country. He attended antiquarian book shows and auctions to acquire most of his collection. It took Wendlick about 18 years to achieve his goal. "This proves that the American dream still lives," Wendlick says. "I'm just a construction guy. In America you can do something like this. I felt honored and privileged to develop and own the collection." Wendlick, now semi-retired, was looking for a home for his collection when he met Doug Erickson, archivist and head of special collections at Lewis & Clark, in charge of special collections. They shared an interest in rare old books; Erickson informed the College of the collection. "I'm glad the collection came to Lewis & Clark College because of the College's name and because the College is close enough that I can stay in touch with it. I don't want to divorce myself from the collection." Wendlick has become a familiar figure in the Aubrey R. Watzek Library as he helps catalog the collection, currently housed in the Heritage Room. Once cataloging is complete, the collection will be available for research to faculty, students and serious Lewis and Clark scholars. The College intends to celebrate the bicentennial with lectures, symposia and exhibitions focused on the American Enlightenment. "We want to help the world understand the significant legacy of the Lewis and Clark Expedition," Mooney says.
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The Wendlick Collection includes:
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