Compiled by S. K. Wier
Latest revision June 10, 2010.
This is a guide to books about early explorers of the American west, after Lewis and Clark and before the Civil War.
So far this is a preliminary list and it is not complete. I will be adding more.
You also might be interested in my more detailed web sites about the
Lewis and Clark Expedition
and the
Mountain Men
If you are looking online for more information about explorers of the west, other than this reading guide, try
General Histories of Early Western Exploration
Goetzmann, William H. Exploration and Empire: The Explorer and Scientist in the
Winning of the American West. New York: Knopf, 1966.
Goetzmann, William H. Army Exploration in the American West, 1803 -1863. 1959. reprint, with a new introduction by the author, Austin, 1991.
Goetzmann, William H. New Lands, New Men: America and the Second Great Age of Discovery. New York, 1986.
DeVoto, Bernard. The Course of Empire. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1952.
DeVoto, Bernard. Across the Wide Missouri. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1950.
Ronda, James P. Beyond Lewis & Clark: The Army Explores the West.
Washington State Historical Society, 2003.
Allen, John Logan, ed. North American Exploration. 3 vols. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1997.
Weber, David J. The Spanish Frontier in North America. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1992.
Richard Bartlett. Great Surveys of the American West. Norman: University of Oklahoma, 1962.
Viola, Herman J. Exploring the West. Washington: Smithsonian Institution, 1987.
A nice introduction, very well illustrated.
Goetzmann, William H., and Glyndwr Williams. The Atlas of North American Exploration from the
Norse Voyages to the Race to the Pole. New York: Prentice Hall, 1992.
Naturalists Out West
Evans, Howard Ensign. Pioneer Naturalists:
The Discovery and Naming of North American Plants and Animals. New York: Holt 1994.
Ewan, Joseph Andorfer. Rocky Mountain Naturalists. Denver: Univ.of Denver Press.
Longer bios of James, Fremont, Parry, Greene, Porter, Patterson, Jones, Penard and Cockerell;
thumbnail sketches of about 1000 other naturalists who visited, or influenced
the study of the natural history of, the Rocky Mountains from 1682 to 1932.
Ewan, Joseph, and Ewan, Nesta. 1981. Biographical Dictionary of
Rocky Mountain Naturalists. Utrecht: Bohn, Scheltema & Holkema.
An extension and update of the thumbnail sketches above.
Peattie, Donald Culross. Green Laurels:
The Lives And Achievements Of The Great Naturalists. New York: Literary Guild, 1936.
Porter, Charlotte M. The Eagle's Nest: Natural History and American Ideas
1812-1842. Univ. of Alabama Press, 1986.
Artist-Explorers
George Catlin and His Indian Gallery, ed. Therese Thau Heyman and George Gurney, with essays by Brian W. Dippie, Christopher Mulvey, and Joan Carpenter Troccoli (Washington, DC: Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2002)
John I. H. Baur, ed., The Autobiography of Worthington Whittredge: 1820-1910 (New York: Arno Press, 1969)
Albert Bierstadt: Art & Enterprise (New York: The Brooklyn Museum in Association with Hudson Hills Press, 1991)
Thomas Moran and the Surveying of the American West (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1992)
The
West of Alfred Jacob Miller. Alfred Jacob Miller. Marvin Ross, ed.
Norman: univ. of Oklahoma, 1968. Black and white reproductions of
many of Miller's sketches made in the west, plus six color
reproductions, plus Miller's own descriptions of each scene.
Alfred
Jacob Miller: Artist on the Oregon Trail. Ron Tyler. Fort Worth,
1982.
Braves
and Buffalo: Plains Indian Life in 1837. Hugh A Taylor. Toronto:
1973. A J Miller's Indian paintings in moderately good color
reproductions.
Karl
Bodmer's America. Karl Bodmer, Marsha V. Gallagher. Lincoln:
University of Nebraska Press, 1984. All or most of Bodmer's paintings
and sketches made in the United States; well reproduced in a fairly
large size. Very impressive.
George
Catlin Letters and Notes on the North American Indians. Michael
Mooney, ed. New York: Clarkson H. Potter, 1975. Many of Catlin's
sketches, and some of his paintings in black and white plus a few
color reproductions. Maybe a hundred picture in all, with fascinating
details.
Pursuit
of the Horizon, a Life of George Catlin. Loyd Haberly. New York:
1948.
See
also the artists Sam. Seymor and Titian Peale (with Long's party,)
and Paul Kane.
Zebulon Pike Expedition to Colorado in 1806-1807
There is no appealing history about Pike's western expedition. The best book-length treatment is this
edition of Pike's book:
Stephen Harding Hart and Archer Butler Hulbert, editors. The Southwestern Journals of Zebulon Pike 1806--1807. Univ. of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, 2006. Annotated edition of Pike's journal, including route location details, benefiting from the papers returned by Mexico in 1910, extensive commentary, as well as significant essays on Pike's papers and the purpose of his famed expedition.
Donald Jackson, editor: The Journals of Zebulon Montgomery Pike, with Letters and Related Documents. 2 vols., Univ. Oklahoma, Norman, 1966. All the material about Pike's expeditions: every journal, document and letter that pertains, with notes. Has a good selection of illustrations and maps. Jackson was a top US historian who lived in Colorado Springs. Few of this title were printed, and it is a high-priced rarity now, but essential for Pike historians. Unless you are Pike historian or enthusiast, you don't need Jackson or Coues (next).
Elliott Coues, editor: The Expeditions of Zebulon Montgomery Pike (1897); two-volume Dover reprint, 1987. The complete journals of both Pike's Mississippi expedition, and the expedition to Colorado, with detailed explanatory footnotes about routes and natural history. Even the Dover reprint of “Coues” is now out of print and expensive. Pike's maps were missing while this book was prepared, so some locations are incorrect.
William H. Goetzmann: Exploration and Empire. Knopf, New York, 1966. See pages 36-53 for an excellent overview of the Pike expedition to Colorado and its place in western exploration and politics.
James P. Ronda: Beyond Lewis and Clark The Army Explores the West. Tacoma, Washington State Historical Society, 2003. Ronda is a top western historian. Pike gets chapter 2, six pages.
Milo Quaife, editor: The Southwestern Expedition of Zebulon Pike. Chicago, 1925. An annotated edition of Pike's journal "...valuable for its discussion of the Louisiana territory and its purchase and exploration."
Donald Jackson: Zebulon Pike's Damned Rascals. Pikes Peak Posse of the Westerners, Colorado Springs, 1979. A booklet with other contributions, titled by Jackson's essay. Jackson tells what we know of the individual men who traveled with Pike to Colorado. Minor, but the only thing on this topic. Very hard to find.
"Zebulon Pike: Hard-Luck Explorer or Successful Spy?" - a good article describing Pike's expeditions:
http://www.nps.gov/archive/jeff/lewisclark2/circa1804/WestwardExpansion/EarlyExplorers/ZebulonPike.htm
"Zebulon Pike: Scaling Pikes Peak," by John P. Murphy : http://zebulonpike.org/zebulon-pike-pikes-peak.htm
The latest word about Pike's route when attempting to climb Pike's Peak. (2005)
Issac J. Cox: "Opening the Santa Fe Trail." Missouri Hist. Rev., 25 (1930). " ... his article is brilliantly illuminating, indispensable on Pike..." - DeVoto.
There are two biographies of Pike:
Juvenile:
Others:
Hollon, W. E. “Zebulon Montgomery Pike's Lost Papers.” Mississippi Valley Historical Review, Vol. 34, No. 2 (Sep., 1947), pp. 265-273
Hyslop, Stephen G. “Zebulon Montgomery Pike's Southwestern Expedition: Bibliography for a Neglected Chapter of Our History.” Wagon Tracks: Santa Fe Trail Assoc. Quarterly 17 (May 2003).
Phillips, Dave. “What Peak Did Pike Climb?” Colorado Springs Gazette, April 25, 2004.
Online:
photos of Pike's 1810 book's pages : http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~landc/html/pike.html (Wash Univ.)
The Zebulon M. Pike Expedition Web Site : http://zebulonpike.org/
“Zebulon Pike: Scaling Pike Peak, by John Patrick Michael Murphy ”
http://zebulonpike.org/zebulon-pike-pikes-peak.htm
Map of the Internal Provinces of New Spain, by Zebulon Pike, 1807 (2.2 mB image):
http://www.tsl.state.tx.us/exhibits/annexation/prologue/map1438.html
Pike, Zebulon. Lt. Zebulon Pike's notebook of maps, traverse tables, and meteorological observations, 1805-07 (U.S. National Archives. National Archives Microfilm publications).-->
Stephen H. Long Expedition of 1820
Nichols, Roger L., and Patrick L. Halley, Stephen Long and American Frontier Exploration (1980; reprinted with a new preface by Nichols, Norman: Norman: Univ. of Oklahoma Press, 1995).
Wood, Richard G. Stephen Harriman Long, 1784–1864: Army Engineer, Explorer, Inventor (Glendale, 1966)
Benson, Maxine, ed., From Pittsburgh to the Rocky Mountains: Major Stephen Long’s Expedition, 1819–1820 (Niwot, 1988), a one-volume abridgement of the Account, with a bibliography.
Goodman, George J., and Cheryl A. Lawson,
Retracing Major Stephen H. Long's 1820 Expedition: The Itinerary and Botany. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1995.
Evans, Howard .E. The Natural History of the Long Expedition to the Rocky Mountains 1819-1820 (New York, 1997)
Beidleman, Richard G. “The 1820 Long Expedition,” American Zoologist 26 (1986): 307–13.
Carson, Phil. “Through a Glass, Sharply: Edwin James and the First
Recorded Ascent of Pikes Peak, July 13–15, 1820,” Essays in Colorado History, no. 14 (1994): 1–35.
Goodwin, Cardinal. “A Larger View of the Yellowstone Expedition, 1819–1820,” 4 (December 1917): 299–3l3
Fuller, Harlin M., and LeRoy R. Hafen, eds., The Journal of Captain John R. Bell, Official Journalist for
the Stephen H. Long Expedition to the Rocky Mountains, 1820 (Glendale, 1957). [Vol. 6 of L. Hafen’s The Far West and the Rockies Historical Series, 1820–1875.]
James, Edwin. Account of an Expedition from Pittsburgh to the Rocky Mountains, Under the Command of Major Stephen H. Long, from the Notes of Major Long... Philadelphia: H. C. Carey and I. Lea, 1823; reprinted Barre, MA: Imprint Society, 1972.
(see original online at http://www.philaprintshop.com/westsurvbks.html)
Morris, Ralph C. “The Notion of a Great American Desert East of the Rockies,” 13 (September 1926): 190–200.
Nichols, Roger L. "Stephen H. Long and Army Exploration on the Plains," Nebraska History 52 (Spring 1971).
Rotella, Carlo. “Travels in a Subjective West: The Letters of Edwin James and Major Stephen Long’s Scientific Expedition of 1819–1820,” Montana 41 (autumn 1991): 20–35
.
.
, .
John Charles Frémont
Frémont: Pathfinder of the West .
Allan Nevins.
New York: Longmans Green, 1955.
"Dated but still standard"
Pathfinder: John Charles Frémont and the Course of American Empire.
Tom Chaffin. Hill and Wang, 2004. 592 pp.
John Charles Frémont Botanical Explorer.
Stanley L. Welsh. Saint Louis: Missouri Botanical Garden Press, 1998. 450 pages.
John Charles Frémont: Character as Destiny .
Andrew Rolle.
Norman: Univ. of Oklahoma Press, 1991.
"highlighting Fremont's rich psycholoical content"
A Newer World : Kit Carson, John C. Frémont, And The Claiming Of The American West .
David Roberts.
Simon & Schuster, 2001.
A recent "popular" history.
The Expeditions of John Charles Fremont .
3 vols. Donald Jackson and Mary Lee Spense, eds.
Urbana: University of Illinois, 1970-1984.
Jackson's customary mastery of all the source documents, with explanatory material.
Exploring with Fremont: The Private Diaries of Charles Preuss .
Charles Preuss. Erwin G. and Elizabeth K. Gudde, eds. and translators.
Norman: Univ. of Oklahoma Press, 1958.
Preuss was cartographer on some of Fremonts expeditions.
The Journals of Theodore Talbot ... with the Fremont Expedition of 1843 ... .
Theodore Talbot. Charles H. Carey, ed.
Portland: Metropolitan Press, 1931.
Talbot was an excursionist who accompanied Fremont on two expeditions, and led a side party on one
occasion.
Memoirs of My Life .
John C. Fremont.
Chicago & New York: Bedford Clarke & Co., 1887.
Kit Carson and His Three Wives: a Family History .
Marc Simmons.
Albuquerque, University of New Mexico Press, 2003.
Kit Carson, mountain man, was guide and a key figure in Fremonts expeditions, and his memoirs are
essential additions to the official reports.
"Marc Simmons knows more about Kit Carson than anyone else....[he] makes full use of the primary sources... "
"Dear Old Kit": The Historical Kit Carson .
Harvey L. Carter.
Lincoln: Univ. of Nebraska Press, 1968.
Carson's own memoir, corrected where obvious errors appear.
Until Simmons' book , "... Carter's [was] the only one that overcomes Carson's faulty
memory for dates and places in his life
in an accurate chronological framework. In addition the work is heavily annotated with data and insights
from Carter's lifelong study of Carson."
Kit Carson: A Pattern for Heros .
Thelma S. Guild and Harvey L. Carter.
UNB, 1984.
biography.
Thomas Nuttal and James Kirk Townsend
Coville, Frederick V.: American botanist.: The Botanical Explorations of Thomas Nuttall in California. ; Washington, D.C.: Biological Society of Washington, 1899. 8 vo. pp.109-121.
DeVoto, Bernard: Across the Wide Missouri. Illustrated by Alfred
Jacob Miller; Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1947. The best book about the mountain men and their world; Nuttall and Townsend included.
Gilbert, Bill: Our Nature. University of Nebraska Press,
1987. Bison Books. Chapter on Thomas Nuttall.
Graustein, Jeannette E.: Thomas Nuttall, Naturalist:
Explorations in America, 1808-1841. Cambridge, Mass.:
Harvard University Press, 1967. An exhaustive study of Nuttal and
his accomplishments.
Irving, Washington: Astoria; or Anecdotes of an Enterprise Beyond the Rocky
Mountains. Philadelphia: Carey, Lea, & Blanchard, 1836.
Colorful account but factually inaccurate and with a stereotype of Nuttall.
Nuttall, Thomas. A Journal of Travels into the Arkansas Territory during the Year 1819. , edited by Savoie Lottinville, 1980, University of Arkansas Press.
Reveal, James L.: Gentle Conquest, The botanical discovery of North America
with illustrations from the libary of Congress.
Washington: 1992. Many superb reproductions of early botanical
illustrations.
Thwaites, Reuben Gold (ed) and Wyeth, John B and Townsend, John K.:
EARLY WESTERN TRAVELS 1748-1846 : VOLUME XXI : WYETH'S OREGON, OR A
SHORT HISTORY OF A LONG JOURNEY, 1832; AND TOWNSEND'S
NARRATIVE OF A JOURNEY ACROSS THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS, 1834.
Townsend, John Kirk: Narrative of a Journey Across the Rocky Mountains
to the Columbia River. 1833. (reprinted as Across the Rockies to the Columbia. Lincoln: University Nebraska Press, 1978.)
Copyright © S. K. Wier 2006, 2009, 2010
revised June 10, 2010
Surveyors Wagon in the Rockies 1859, Albert Bierstadti, oil (original 7 by 12 inches)
Early Western Explorers - A Guide to Resources
The Great Reconnaissance (provided by the National Park Service).
Vanguard of Expansion Army Engineers in the Trans-Mississippi West, 1819-1879 by Frank N. Schubert (provided by the National Park Service)
A History of the U. S. Topographical Engineers
by the U.S. Corps of Topographical Engineers, a living history group,
Geological Surveys Before the Civil War by the USGS.
Hollon, W. Eugene. The Lost Pathfinder: Zebulon Montgomery Pike. University of Oklahoma, Norman, 1949. A basic biography with complete bibliography to date of publication.
Terrell, John Upton. Zebulon Pike; the Life and times of an Adventurer. Weybright and Talley, 1968. More lively and interesting than Hollon's book. Good bibliography.
Zebulon Pike and the Explorers of the American South. Jared Stallones. New York: Chelsea House, 1992. 110 pages. Good for sixth grade to high school, or even adult beginners on Pike. Many period illustrations.
Zebulon Pike: Soldier and Explorer, by Barbara Witteman. ages 9-12. 48 pages. 2002
Zebulon Pike: Explorer and Soldier, by Robin S. Doak. ages 9-12. 112 pages. 2005.
Zebulon Pike: Explorer of the Southwest, by William R. Sanford. grades 4-7. 1996
Zebulon Pike: Lost in the Rockies, by Patricia Calvert. Benchmark, 2004. 80 pages.
Herbert E. Bolton. “Papers of Zebulon M. Pike, 1806-1807” American Historical Review, Vol. 13, No. 4 (Jul., 1908), pp. 798-827
Reuse, retransmission, or reproduction prohibited without prior written permission from the compiler.
