(COMING SOON) Excursions, Expeditions, and "Discoveries:" A Young Nation Expands & Reimagining America: The Maps of Lewis & Clark
Tracing the footsteps of the explorers sent west after the Louisiana Purchase, these exhibitions connect early American exploration with the landscapes and communities of Louisiana today. Through historic narratives and contemporary photography created in collaboration with LSU students, we reimagine what it means to discover, document, and remember a changing nation.
All Exhibits & EventsExhibition Overview
President Thomas Jefferson, long fascinated about exploring and mapping the land west of the Mississippi, suddenly was given the chance in 1803 when the United States purchased the Louisiana territory from France.
Jefferson was ready to act, sending four teams to explore the 828,000 square miles of land west of the Mississippi River between 1804 and 1807. Jefferson sent Meriwether Lewis and William Clark into the northern regions of the Purchase; Zebulon Pike into the Rocky Mountains, the southwestern areas, and two smaller forays; Thomas Freeman and Peter Custis along the Red River; and William Dunbar and Dr. George Hunter to explore the “Washita” River and “the hot springs” in what is now Arkansas and Louisiana.
“New Archive” is an advanced level photography course offered in the School of Art at Louisiana State University by Associate Professor Johanna Warwick. In the spring 2026 semester, New Archive students collaborated with Louisiana’s Old State Capitol Museum to research and map the Dunbar and Hunter diaries to retrace their path along the Red, Black, Ouachita, and Mississippi Rivers.
With this knowledge, students planned a two-day camping journey following Dunbar and Hunter’s early journal entries, making images that reference Dunbar & Hunter’s writings while reflecting on what exists at these sites today
Featured Photographers
Photographs presented in collaboration with LSU photography students and Johanna Warwick.
Miracle Beverly, Lucie Grandbouche, Cross Harris, Lois Hebert, Brianna Newman, Lisa Newman, Savoir Parnell, Alexis Persicke, Amaizeya St. Mary, Sanaa Stingley, Jaden Sylvester, Raine Zugel
Explore the Site Map Below
In preparation for Louisiana’s Old State Capitol’s Excursions, Expeditions, and “Discoveries:” A Young Nation Expands exhibition, curator Anne Mahoney, Associate Professor Johanna Warwick, and the New Archive students created this interactive map using the journals of Dunbar and Hunter and Freeman published in The Forgotten Expedition, 1804 – 1805: The
Louisiana Purchase Journals of Dunbar and Hunter edited by Trey Berry, Pam Beasley and Jeanne Clements and Custis published in Southern Counterpart to Lewis and Clark: The Freeman and Custis Expedition of 1806 edited by Dan Flores. In the spring of 2026, Johanna Warwick and the New Archive students responded to Dunbar and Hunter’s journals and conducted their own expedition, documenting the section of the Red, Black, and Ouachita rivers that Dunbar and Hunter used to access the Ouachita.
This interactive map includes markers whose locations were determined by referencing the Latitudes recorded in the journals in degrees, minutes, and seconds and converting them to decimal degrees using the Federal Communications Commission conversion calculator. Global Positioning Systems, like Google Maps, uses the decimal degrees format for Latitude and Longitude.
Map Key
Magenta/Dark Pink Markers
Grand Expedition: The Ouachita River
Excursion Party: William Dunbar, Dr. George Hunter, thirteen enlisted soldiers, Hunter’s teenage son, two enslaved persons, and Dunbar’s servant. Soldiers: Sergeant Bundy, Peter Bowers, John White, Robert Wilson, Matthew Boon, William Skinner, William Little, William Tuttle, Manus McDonald, Jeremiah Smith, Edward Rylet, William Court, and Jeremiah Loper.
Purpose: Voyage sanctioned by President Thomas Jefferson to map the Ouachita River, a tributary of the Red River, from its southerly point to Hot Springs. Jefferson originally commissioned William Dunbar to map the Red River, but fears about safety paused those plans until the Freeman and Custis Red River expedition in 1806.
Dates: October 1804 — January 1805
Yellow Markers
Expedition Party: Thomas Freeman (expedition leader, civilian engineer, surveyor), Dr. Peter Custis (naturalist), Captain Richard Sparks, Leit. Humphreys, two noncommissioned officers, seventeen private soldiers, and a “Black servant.” They were joined briefly by métis Lucas Talapoon who acted as interpreter, hunter, and guide.
Purpose: Voyage planned and commissioned by President Thomas Jefferson to map the Red River, engage with the Indigenous populations, and document flora, fauna, geological, and weather conditions.
Dates: April 1806 — August 1806
Blue Markers
New Archive Excursion Party: Johanna Warwick, Miracle Beverly, Lucie Grandbouche, Cross Harris, Lois Hebert, Brianna Newman, Lisa Newman, Savoir Parnell, Alexis Persicke, Amaizeya St. Mary, Sanaa Stingley, Jaden Sylvester, Raine Zugel
Purpose: Create documentary photography of present day sites mentioned in the southerly portion of the Dunbar and Hunter Expedition. The students dove into the creative and conceptual possibilities of working with archives, engaging directly with the Dunbar and Hunter journals and in turn creating documents from their perspective. Some students reflected on their experience in these historic spaces, while others photographed scenes that reminded them of content in the journals. A small portion of the photographs they created are on display in the exhibition, while the rest are viewable on this interactive map.
Dates: April 10 — 11, 2026
Reimagining America: The Maps of Lewis & Clark
June 23-Nov. 28
In 1804-06, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark led an expedition from the Mississippi to the Pacific. The exhibit explains how the Lewis and Clark Expedition’s findings transformed Euro-American understandings of North America in the early 1800s. It also investigates methods used by the explorers to gather and process that information, including pre-existing maps, navigational scientific equipment that was considered cutting edge for its time, and intelligence gained from Native Americans whom the explorers interacted with.
Reimagining America was created by the national nonprofit Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation to increase awareness of the story of the nation’s geographic understanding of itself and the different cultural viewpoints and strategies that enabled Lewis and Clark to map and share their data.
On loan from Lewis and Clark Trail Alliance, Inc.