Where in the World . . . was Meriwether Lewis? he Lewis and
Clark Expedition was a business trip. For more than 300 years
European explorers and, lately, American traders, had been
steadily pushing the boundaries of the known world outward into
the previously unknown. Within those new boundaries they found
other peoples, which meant new places to sell things, and new
goods their own customers at home might like to buy. Thus
businessmen engaged in trade beyond the boundaries of their own
countries began to think globally. Accordingly, they needed to
be able to identify new places with certainty, and to know a
place meant to know its location by the numbers — by its address
on the global grid. That is why Thomas Jefferson instructed
Lewis: Beginning at the mouth of the Missouri, you will take
observations of latitude & longitude, at all remarkeable points
on the river, & especially at the mouths of rivers, at rapids,
at islands, and other places & objects distinguished by such
natural marks & characters of a du