Deciphering Historic Journals

From Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail:

When reading through most unabridged editions of the journals, readers are frequently confused when they see notations in the text, preceded with a set of initials, such as [WC:], [ML:], [NB:], [EC:], or [X:]. What does this bracketed material mean?

Over the years, individuals besides the original authors have written on the pages of the journals. Nicholas Biddle was the first, in about 1810, when he prepared a paraphrase of the journals. Some of his additions were made for his own use, and some perhaps were made on the advice of William Clark, with whom Biddle collaborated during his work. Somewhere along the trail, Clark would make a note within Meriwether Lewis’s writings, and vice versa. And Elliott Coues worked on the manuscripts in December 1892 and made numerous, long notations upon the original pages. An X stand for an unknown or unidentifiable person.

This photo is of some of the actual journals that are held at the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia. The collection there consists of 18 small notebooks, approximately 4 by 6 inches, of the type commonly used by surveyors in field work. Thirteen of them are bound in red morocco leather, four in boards covered in marbled-paper, and one in plain brown leather. There are a number of loose pages and rough notes, as well. 




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