Makeup of Corps of Discovery Is Jan. 21 Olson Seminar Topic

WHEN: Wednesday, Jan. 21, 3:30 p.m.
WHERE: Great Plains Art Collection, 1155 Q Street

Lincoln, Neb., Jan. 8, 2004 -- Meriwether Lewis, William Clark, Sacagawea. Those names trip off the tongue of any American schoolchild as the most famous members of the Corps of Discovery in 1804-06.

The names of the other members of the corps are not nearly as well known, though, and their stories will be the focus of the next Paul A. Olson Seminar in Great Plains Studies Jan. 21 at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. In "A Corps of Volunteers for Northwestern Discovery," Stephen Witte, a lecturer in history at UNL, will describe how the story of the other members is an integral part of the expedition's history.

The seminar begins at 3:30 p.m. in the Great Plains Art Collection gallery, 1155 Q St. Witte's lecture and a 3 p.m. reception in the gallery are free and open to the public.

Witte will describe how the expedition was many things: a voyage of geographic investigations, an exercise in diplomacy with Native Americans, a mission of scientific endeavors -- and a military operation of the U.S. Army.

Of the 33 people who eventually made the trip to the Pacific, 26 were enlisted soldiers. Some were regulars who joined the expedition from the Army's Western forts. Others were volunteers from civilian life who enlisted for the duration of the voyage. Unruly as many of the men were at the beginning, by the end of the voyage they had become a well-disciplined "band of brothers."

Witte's lecture is the first of four spring semester Olson Seminars, all with themes centered on the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Future seminars are:

* Feb. 18: "Medical Care on the Lewis and Clark Voyage of Discovery," Dr. Richard Fruehling of Grand Island;

* March 10: "Missouri River Basin Lewis and Clark Interpretive Trail and Visitors Center," Nancy Hoch of Nebraska City, president, River Country Economic Development Corp.;

* April 21: "'I Wished for the Pencil of Salvator Rosa': The Artistic Legacy of Lewis and Clark," Joni L. Kinsey, associate professor of American art history at the University of Iowa.

CONTACT: Kim Weide, Co Great Plains Studies, (402) 472-3964