The United States Exploring Expedition

The United States Exploring Expedition

Smithsonian Institution Libraries

United States Exploring Expedition : Overview

• Leader: Charles Wilkes (1798 – 1877)

• Duration: 1838 - 1842

• Cost: $300,000.00• Purpose: “to

extend the bounds of science and to promote knowledge”


• Brazil• Tierra del Fuego• Antarctica• Chile• Australia• New Zealand• the west coast of North

America• the Philippines• East Indies


• Vincennes, a sloop of war of 780 tons

• Peacock, a sloop of war of 650 tons

• Porpoise, a brig of 230 tons

• Relief, a store ship• Sea Gull, a schooner

of 110 tons• Flying Fish, a

schooner of 96 tons


• 62 discharged as “unsuitable”

• 42 deserters• 15 died of injuries,

disease or accidents

• 82 Officers

• 342 sailors

• 9 Naturalists, Scientists, and Artists

United States Exploring Expedition : And the Smithsonian

The Smithsonian acquired and displayed specimens and artifacts from the expedition in 1858. In so doing, it established itself as a showcase for the country's first major international scientific venture and as a guardian of national treasures.

United States Exploring Expedition : The Books


• 5 volume Narrative by Charles Wilkes (1844-74)


• Hale - Ethnology and Philology (1846)

• Dana- Zoophytes (1846, 1849)

• Peale - Mammalia and Ornithology (1848)

• Cassin - Mammalogy and Ornithology (1858)

• Pickering - Races of Man (1848)


• Dana - Geology (1849)• Wilkes - Meteorology

(1851)• Gould - Mollusca and

Shells (1852, 1856)• Dana - Crustacea (1852,

1853, 1855)• Gray - Botany -

Phanerogamia (1854, 1856)


• Brackenridge - Botany - Cryptogamia - Filices (1854, 1855)

• Various (ed. By Gray) - Botany - Cryptogamia (1874)

• Torrey - Phanerogamia of Pacific North America (1862)


• Pickering - The Geographical Distribution of Animals and Plants (1854)

• Girard - Herpetology (1858)

• Wilkes - Hydrography (1861, 1850, 1858)


• ~ 12,745 pages of text

• ~ 1,134 plates

• ~ 232 maps

• ~ 14,205 total images to be created

United States Exploring Expedition : The Science

United States Exploring Expedition : The Science

United States Exploring Expedition : The Digital Version


• Initial grant of $20,750.00 from the Smithsonian’s Atherton Seidel fund for digital imaging (2000)

• Collections Information Systems Pool fund award of $30,000.00 for re-keying of the Narrative text (April 2003)


• Leslie Overstreet

• Daria Wingreen

• David Holbert

• Conrad Ziyad

• Erin Clements

• Nicole Van Doren

• NH Library Staff


• Scan of page images

• Text volumes to Preservation Resources

• Atlas and Plate volumes done at SIL Imaging Center


• Mark up of Narrative in TEI Lite XML Schema


• Mark up of scientific volumes in Taxonomic XML Schema


• Linking of museum objects and specimens to text

United States Exploring Expedition : SIL Website

United States Exploring Expedition : SIL Website

• “USExEX” Project page now available

• Official site to launch in November 2003

• Will feature contribution by Nathaniel Philbrick, author of the forthcoming Seas of Glory

• Additional contributions on selected areas as website develops

United States Exploring Expedition : Magnificent Voyages

Documents

The United States Exploring Expedition