The plants collected during the journey are vital, tangible links to one of the most important events in the nation s history, with tremendous historical significance and exemplary scientific value. These 226 plants so painstakingly collected and transported are virtually all the physical artifacts that remain of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. After nearly 200 years the plants remain a working resource for scientists and historians. In the early 1800s the plants were the first major scientific collection from the northwestern US, and a remarkable 94 of the 202 species found were new to science. These original specimens remain as scientifically important today as when the species were first described by botanists working with Lewis and Clark.
Scholars continue to find new uses for the plants.
For example, in 1997, a researcher from the Carnegie Institution of Washington measured isotopes of carbon in small pieces of leaf material that can help us understand how the atmosphere has changed since Lewis and Clark explored pre-industrial western North America. Lewis and Clark scholar Stephen E. Ambrose says he has never felt closer to the explorers than during his visits to Philadelphia to see the plants. He goes on to say, I can see why scholarly researchers and the lay public get excited when they see the remarkable historic botanical collections at The Academy of Natural Sciences. They deserve the highest level of care and maintenance. Handwritten label by Meriwether Lewis for one of the plant specimens he collected.