Frances Hunter

blog of the author To the Ends of the Earth

 

Frances Hunter's Journal
July 2007

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July 31, 2007: The Bison Note

I have a confession to make: I'm a collector. Over the years I've collected lots of things, from political memorabilia to sports items to stamps to toy cars.

With Lewis & Clark, I was lucky enough to get interested in them just as the Bicentennial was ramping up. I'm happy to buy books, artwork, music, t-shirts, Christmas ornaments, soap, tapestry throws, and stuffed animals as long as they have something to do with Lewis & Clark. I'm just sorry they never made bedsheets or lunch boxes.

With some exceptions, my collection is a modest array of gee-gaws that has value only to me. That isn't the case, however, with the proud owners of the 1901 Lewis & Clark Bison Note.

 

This $10 bill is considered one of the all-time gems of American currency, and auctions between $500 for circulated specimens to over $12,000 for uncirculated bills. That's Lewis on the left, Clark on the right, and "Pablo" in the middle. Somebody give me some money. I feel the need to collect this coming on.

July 24, 2007: Hygiene in Early America

There are certain aspects of the past that historical fiction authors usually soft-pedal. Let's face it, the fact that our heroes of the past very seldom brushed their teeth or swished out under their armpits is pretty unappealing by today's standards.

Lewis and Clark were highly competent military officers, and both of them were talented amateur doctors. They had more understanding than most people of their time of the importance of cleanliness and hygiene to promote good health, and probably demanded the highest standards of their men and themselves. The U.S. Army website has a good article about preventative medicine in the military during the Lewis & Clark era.

But that doesn't mean Lewis and Clark or their men smelled like roses. In Lewis & Clark's time, the idea of bathing in our current sense was just coming into fashion. For most folks, a bath consisted of using a basin to wash the visible parts of the body -- that is, the face, hands, and neck. Unless you jumped in the swimming hole once in a while, you never submerged your entire body in water. It wasn't that people didn't notice body odor. It was that they didn't consider it offensive, any more than one would be offended by the body odor of a horse or a cow. Odors were simply a fact of life, not worth remarking on.

But beginning in about the 1790s, a trend towards bathing the body began to emerge among the upper crust. People started to buy special wash stands that made it easier to sponge off the unseen parts of the body. This idea spread out of the elite and into the nation's villages and frontiers very slowly. It wasn't until about the 1830s that bathing was widely accepted. Even then, the lack of central heat, along with the expense of mild soap and the harshness of homemade soap, made daily bathing a luxury that was practiced by very few.

So it seems pretty clear that Lewis and Clark, along with the rest of their countrymen, probably washed very rarely. It's also true that they didn't change their underwear -- because underwear did not yet exist in the modern sense. Instead, men wore shirts with very long tails that they simply tucked in to their pants to cover their bottoms. Women wore chemises that served the same purpose. Flannel drawers did exist to wear in the colder months.

With these very different standards of hygiene, you may be wondering why old portraits don't show people with greasy, dirty-looking hair. It wasn't just artistic license. The answer is that the hair, like the face and hands, was a visible part of the body and was expected to be washed. Most people simply washed their hair with plain water (modern shampoo was not introduced until the 1930s). If you try this, you will find that eventually, your hair adjusts to the lack of detergent and becomes clean, soft, and fluffy without the use of any soap or shampoo. However, the hair would retain your characteristic body odor. Odors were not nearly so important to people then as they would later become.

As for tooth-brushing, toothbrushes and toothpaste as we know them today didn't come along until after the Civil War. In Lewis & Clark's time, people generally used a flayed stick or boar's or horsehair brushes to clean their teeth and gums, usually using salt, bicarbonate of soda, or borax. Some early toothpastes were made about this time by adding glycerine to the toothpowders.

Want to know more? Check out this good Sturbridge Village article about hygiene and manners.

July 18, 2007: Zebulon Pike

When we first started researching our book, we learned that Zebulon Pike, of Pike's Peak fame, was a contemporary of Lewis & Clark and conducted his expedition to the Southwest at about the same time as Lewis & Clark were blazing the trail to the Pacific. But Pike was anything but an equal to Lewis & Clark. To tell the truth, Pike was a bit of a putz.

The National Park Service has an excellent website that compares and contrasts Pike's expedition with that of Lewis & Clark. The essential point is that Meriwether Lewis and William Clark were highly trained military officers who possessed expertise in diplomacy, field science, navigation, and cartography, not to mention leadership. To assist them, they were allowed to recruit a corps of the best soldiers the frontier army had to offer. They were sent west under a presidential commission to understand the Louisiana Territory, find a practical route across the continent, and establish relations with the Indians along the way. At this they succeeded to a remarkable degree.

By contrast, Captain Pike was sent out west with virtually none of the education or abilities that Lewis & Clark had. Though considered a crack shot and an efficient officer (if a bit of a martinet), he was strictly an ordinary, mediocre man who seemed destined to live and die without making much of a mark. That is, until he became the protégé of none other than our old friend, James Wilkinson. And thereby hangs a tale.

It never ceases to amaze me how far Wilkinson's reach extended and how many people became his pawns. Certainly his attempted "seduction" of Lewis in our book is entirely realistic. At any rate, Pike became a lackey for the commanding general of the United States Army, who also happened to be a traitor and one of the worst scoundrels in American history.

In 1805, Wilkinson dispatched Pike to explore the upper Mississippi. Pike was to find the headwaters of the Mississippi, stop the illicit fur trade, persuade the Indians to come meet with Wilkinson, and produce useful maps. At all this Pike failed utterly. He and his hastily assembled ragtag crew set off with no medical training, no interpreter, and no scientific instruments. The expedition was a disaster, with the men saved from freezing to death only by the kindness of British traders, still our enemies at this time.

Nonetheless, Wilkinson sent Pike on an even more difficult mission the following year. Supposedly, Pike was to head west to explore the Arkansas and Red Rivers to their sources. But the exploration was only a cover story. Pike's real job would be to spy on the Spanish, determine their strength and the location of their forts, and report on how hard it might be to invade the southwest.

The story takes an astonishing turn when you learn that, at the same time, Wilkinson (who was a double agent) tipped off the Spanish that Pike was going to be traveling illegally into their territory! Though it is known that Wilkinson had earlier betrayed the route of Lewis & Clark to the Spanish (who failed to catch up with them), this time he betrayed his own man! Some historians believe that Wilkinson's plan from the beginning was to have Pike captured so he could get an inside look into Spanish territory.

It is difficult to say whether Pike knew what was going to happen. At times he certainly behaved like a man who wanted to be found, rather than a man protecting the interests of his supposed mission and the welfare of his men. He and his men bumbled their way west with no warm clothing, no scientific instruments, and insufficient horses. They made it to Colorado, starving and desperately cold, where they found the mountains that include Pike's Peak.

In February, 1807, they were arrested by Spanish authorities and escorted to Santa Fe. Here Pike was able to take notes on the Spanish forts and settlements, the real purpose of his expedition all along. The Spanish escorted Pike across Texas and expelled him back across the border into Louisiana. The incident led Spain to break off diplomatic relations with the United States. Eight of Pike's men were held by the Spanish for two years before finally being released.

After this adventure, Pike returned to more routine duty in the Army. He wrote a book about his adventures, which, though poorly written and inaccurate, provided Americans with the first accounts of the Spanish southwest. He died in battle during the War of 1812.

July 12, 2007: Lewis & Clark - Wanted for Treason

If you're curious, check out our new media kit for retailers. We think there's some really fun stuff there!

Regency-Era Clothing

The clothes Lewis & Clark and their men wore on the Expedition are well-documented in the wonderful book Tailor Made, Trail Worn, by Robert J. Moore and Michael Haynes. But what about back in St. Louis, where our book takes place? What did Lewis and Clark wear? And what did Julia Clark and the other women in their lives wear?

As far as fashion is concerned, Lewis and Clark lived in what most people today call the "Regency era." The era takes its name from the fact that George III of England had been deemed unfit to rule, placing the British crown under a regency until his death. However, as far as fashion and style are concerned, the era spanned a longer period, approximately 1795-1825. In America the fashions and trends of this time period are often called "Federal style," and in France the term "Empire style" is used.

The Regency era was a time of elegance and beauty. We were surprised to learn how natural and practical women's clothing was in the Regency era. The era of binding corsets and hoop skirts came later. Julia Clark and her counterparts would have been more comfortable than women for many generations to come, wearing loose-fitting empire waist dresses, ballet slippers, and understated jewelry and hair styles. These fashions were classic, simple, and very flattering to the female form.

For more on women's clothing, check out Notes and Illustrations on Regency clothing styles.

As for men, this was the era in which breeches, powdered wigs, and buckled shoes went out, and trousers, lace-up shoes, and short hair came in. Despite the trend towards more modern clothing, men were still the peacocks in this era, and their clothing was more elaborate and uncomfortable than that of the women. The well-dressed man wore a coat, waistcoat, and high-collared white shirt tied with an elaborate neckcloth, and no outfit was complete without a tall round hat (top hat) or a bicorn.

Jessamyn's Costumers Companion is another great site that goes into depth on clothing and hairstyles for both men and women. You can quickly see that Meriwether Lewis's cropped, tousled haircut (known as a "Brutus") was the very latest thing. William Clark's longer hair was more conservative, but his large side whiskers were very fashionable.

In fact, Lewis had a reputation as a "dandy," a type that had only just emerged during the Regency era. The ideal dandy was a witty man who dressed with elegance and dash, cultivated democratic ideals, and eschewed tradition and conventionality. It is fascinating to me how Lewis managed to combine a deep concern with style with the qualities of a rugged frontiersman.

July 2, 2007: New Book Trailer

We're very excited about our new book trailer, which you can play above. Let us know what you think!

The Little House at Spruce and Main

One focus of To the Ends of the Earth is the change that has come into the relationship of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark since they returned from the Voyage of Discovery. Lewis is a lonely bachelor. He's drinking and spending money like there's no tomorrow. Clark, on the other hand, has settled down. He courted and married 16-year-old Julia Hancock, a Virginia belle, and set up housekeeping in St. Louis. Will and Julia are proud new parents of a baby boy, and Clark has everything he ever dreamed of.

Though Will and Julia would have been in the elite class of people back in those days, the difference in living standards between then and now are striking. They moved into a house on the corner of Spruce and Main that was a mere 22 x 30 feet -- just 660 square feet! Today, by contrast, the average size of a "starter" home is 1700 square feet. The property also contained a stable, exterior kitchen, and a small smokehouse.

Lewis found the property for the Clarks while they were still on their honeymoon.

Pictures of the Clark home plus Lewis's description of the property

One of the home's previous tenants was James Wilkinson, the villain of To the Ends of the Earth! Apparently, by the time the Clarks moved in, the house had been decorated with wallpaper and wooden mantlepieces ordered by Wilkinson. It is strange to think of Clark and his family having to live with decorating choices made by the man who ruined Clark's brother, George Rogers Clark, and contributed to hounding Lewis to his doom.

Clark arrived with his wife and several slaves in tow, including York. The newlyweds were often visited by various relatives. Is it any wonder that Lewis soon moved out? Doubtless he couldn't hear himself think.

The wonderful book Dear Brother contains Clark's letters to his brother Jonathan from this period. A careful study of this book gives you a lot of insight into how the new couple lived. One of my favorite pieces of trivia is that Clark was a night owl, usually staying up past midnight to write letters or work on projects.

In contrast with what we imagine from Gone with the Wind, Clark's letters reveal that keeping slaves didn't mean that he and Julia were waited on hand and foot. In fact, Clark often writes that he and Julia ended up doing most of the housework themselves, and that he had to go up to the garrett to kick the slaves out of bed in the morning. The man so noted for his skillful leadership and insightful people management during the Expedition is clueless when it comes to the people he held in bondage.

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