Conference Start Time
July 10, 2020 | Posted in Uncategorized | By Alexandria Searls
We have modified that Monday and Tuesday conference start time so our Western participants don’t have to be in front of their screens at 6 AM! We’ll be starting at 10 AM Eastern Standard Time Monday through Wednesday. 7 is still early, but at least the sun will be up!
Our August Conference Schedule!
July 1, 2020 | Posted in Uncategorized | By Alexandria Searls
Here it is, the schedule of events for “Home Places and New Spaces,” the online Lewis & Clark Trail Heritage Foundation 52nd Annual Meeting, which we’re co-hosting this August! We’re excited about the array of topics and virtual tours! You can register at
https://www.eventbrite.com/x/lewis-and-clark-trail-heritage-foundation-52nd-annual-meeting-2020-tickets-107066179826
Home Places and New Spaces
A Virtual Conference
Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation 52nd Annual Meeting
Aug. 3-5, 2020
Monday, August 3
10 AM to 10:30 AM
Welcoming Remarks and Introductions
10:30 AM to 11:30 AM
Lecture: “Thomas Jefferson’s Indian Hall at the University of Virginia”
by Dr. Elizabeth Chew, Executive Vice President and Chief Curator at
James Madison’s Montpelier
What happened to the Lewis and Clark artifacts once housed at the University of Virginia? Dr. Chew examines this mystery and tells of Thomas Jefferson’s history as a collector.
11:30 AM to 12:00 AM
Question and Answer with Dr. Elizabeth Chew
Break for Lunch
12:30 PM to 1 PM
A Virtual Tour of Montpelier, home of James and Dolley Madison
Dolley Madison helped fund the Lewis and Clark Expedition, though she was afraid that Meriwether Lewis, whom she met many times through the Madisons’ friendship with Thomas Jefferson, would not be returning. Through this virtual tour you will be visiting her home, which has been furnished since the last LCTHF meeting in Charlottesville, and has added new exhibitions and interpretation.
1:15 PM to 2:00 PM
A Virtual Tour of the new Lewis and Clark Exploratory Center led by Executive Director Alexandria Searls and Director of Programs and Public Engagement, Becky Gildersleeve
You will be taken through the full-size replica Expedition boats, as well as the collection of artifacts and art, from the 1700s through today. Bronzes, contemporary American Indian art, and an original plat from the Lewis family will be examined. You’ll learn about hands-on programs that teach the skills of exploration to children and that bring them the joys of discovery. You’ll see how the Lewis and Clark journals–their maps, drawings, and writing—are used as models for inspiration.
2:00 PM to 2:15 PM
Question and Answers about the Lewis and Clark Exploratory Center with Malou Stark, Current President, Sally Thomas, Immediate Past President, and Alexandria Searls, Executive Director
3 PM to 4:00 PM
The Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation Business Meeting
Every conference participant is invited to attend.
5:00 PM to 6:00 PM
Our Meet and Greet!
You’ll meet in Zoom rooms with other conference attendees. Introduce yourself and talk to people from across the United States and at different points on the Lewis and Clark Trail. (We’ll be sharing a cooking video for making a historic recipe as an hors d’oeuvres, as well as two special drinks (one non-alcoholic) to give us the option to enjoy a libation together.)
Tuesday, August 4
10:00 AM to 10:45 AM
“Home Places and New Spaces”
Join us for a film of the home places of the Lewis and Clark families and of Thomas Jefferson, as well as portraits of the new spaces devoted to history in Charlottesville and the region. Through video and photographs you’ll take a look at the University of Virginia’s Memorial to Enslaved Laborers; the Lewis Family’s estate house within Charlottesville, “the Farm,” and the Woolen Mills area; the Lewis & Clark Statue, now slated to be moved; and the new welcome center at Monticello. You’ll see where Ken Burns celebrated his Lewis and Clark film at the birthplace of George Rogers Clark, and where the new Lewis and Clark Exploratory Center was constructed on land once owned by William Clark’s grandfather.
11 AM to 12 PM
Local History Walk on Charlottesville’s Downtown Mall
Tour guide, storyteller, and photographer Rob Craighurst will guide us through York Place, named for York by Chuck Lewis, an admirer of the explorer, and through Court Square, the Levy Opera House, the Tavern, and more.
Break for Lunch
1 PM to 2 PM
Take a live virtual tour of Monticello, with a focus on the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Afterwards, enjoy a detailed examination of rare books about Lewis and Clark housed at Monticello’s library at Kenwood.
3 PM to 3:45 PM.
Lecture, “The View from Monacan Country: Exploring Amoroleck’s Prophecy (A.D. 1608-2020)” by Dr. Jeffrey Hantman, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology and Archaeology, University of Virginia
The title acknowledges Donald Jackson’s “Exploring the West from Monticello.” A contemporary view of Monacan country in 1803 will be given, with overviews of what came before and what lingered after for Native Americans in Virginia and the East (after Lewis & Clark and Jefferson’s Museum).
3:45 to 4:15 PM
A Question and Answer Session with Dr. Jeffrey Hantman
4:30 PM to 5:15 PM
“A Vote for Democracy: Online Learning,” Lewis and Clark Exploratory Center Executive Director Alexandria Searls will demonstrate interactive, online learning initiatives directed at high school students and adult visitors. Using documents related to Lewis and Clark, participants at the conference will remake key decisions of the Lewis and Clark Expedition
5:15 PM to 5:45 PM
A Question and Answer Session with Alexandria Searls about interactive learning design.
Wednesday Aug. 5
10 AM to 11 AM
We’ll begin the day with a tour of Locust Hill Cemetery, burial site of Meriwether Lewis’s mother, Lucy Marks, with comments by the great-great-great great niece of Meriwether Lewis, Jane Henley. We’ll continue with a slide show of Cloverfields, the burial site of Meriwether Lewis’ father, and of Grace Episcopal Church where Meriwether Lewis worshipped.
11 AM to 11:30 AM
We’ll get a special look at the new archeological discoveries at the University of Virginia, focusing on an early science classroom within the walls of the Rotunda. From there we’ll cover other local legacies of Thomas Jefferson’s scientific pursuits.
Break for Lunch
1 PM to 1:45 PM
Lecture, “The Corps of Discovery and Thomas Jefferson: Prehistory and Aftermath.”
The third annual Moulton Lecture, named after scholar Gary Moulton, will be delivered by Dr. J. Jefferson Looney, editor of the Thomas Jefferson Papers Retirement Series at Monticello. The series is creating the definitive edition of Thomas Jefferson’s letters and papers for the period from 1809 to 1826. Dr. Looney will discuss both the Michaux Expedition of 1793 and Thomas Jefferson’s efforts to retrieve and publish key documents from the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
1:45 PM to 2:15 PM
A Question and Answer Session with Dr. J. Jefferson Looney
3:30 PM to 4:15 PM
Lecture, “Reimagining America: The Maps of Lewis and Clark,”
by Carolyn Ives Gilman, Former Director of the Missouri Historical Society, Curator of American Museum of the American Indian
Carolyn Gilman will present the scholarship and ideas behind the traveling exhibition she is developing for the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation. “In 1803, Native people knew the West, but Americans could only speculate.” Large scale reproductions of maps, photographs, and interpretive text will be available to educational spaces, sharing the vision that the maps made on the Expedition brought home.
4:15 PM to 4:45 PM
A Question and Answer Session with Carolyn Ives Gilman.
4:45 PM to 5:15 PM
Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation Awards Ceremony and
Invitation to 2021 Annual Meeting
5:15 PM to 6:15 PM
Closing Online Social Hour