Discovering the Mastodon:
Part 8: Fossils in the White House
Thomas Jefferson
During the first years of the 19th century, most interest in the "Mammoth" (mastodon) was understandably directed toward Charles Wilson Peale’s specimen in Philadelphia. But in July of 1803, Peale informed President Jefferson of a sizable new discovery of bones at Big Bone Lick by a Cincinnati physician, William Goforth. Later that year, Jefferson asked Meriwether Lewis to visit Goforth on his way to joining William Clark and the Corps of Discovery (1). Lewis reviewed the collection and sent a report to Jefferson. He also sent the president a tusk and a molar belonging to the "mammoth" and a molar belonging to an "elephant" (actually a woolly mammoth), but these were lost when the boat carrying them sank in the Lower Mississippi River.
Goforth hoped to sell his collection, which now amounted to ten crates weighing several tons, to either Charles Willson Peale, the American Philosophical Society or someone in Europe. However, the agent he hired for the sale, Thomas Ashe, made off with the bones and took them to England where he put them on display. Ashe later sold the collection and absconded with the money. An inventory of the collection indicated that it contained a well-preserved skull, a crucial element missing from Peale’s "Mammoth" in Philadelphia.
In 1807, Thomas Jefferson renewed his effort to obtain "Mammoth" fossils from Big Bone Lick by enlisting William Clark, who had recently returned from the Far West. Unfortunately, collectors had been removing fossils from Big Bone Lick for decades. In a September 20 correspondence to Jefferson, Clark pessimistically commented: "This Lick has been pillaged so frequently that but few valuable bones are to be found entire."
The Clark-Jefferson Expedition, which was personally financed by Jefferson, would employ ten laborers and spend several weeks at the site. A scattering of bones, teeth and fragments could be found at the surface and at depth, but no intact or partially intact skeletons were discovered. Moreover, many of the more fragile bones the team exhumed would crumble upon exposure to the air. Considerable effort in securing two parts of the skeleton missing in Peale’s "Mammoth": the top of the head and front feet. Clark had some success with the feet, but not the head. For example, Clark lamented in his second (November 10) correspondence to Jefferson:
"I regret very much the loss of this head, it is impossible to save those that are taken out of the water, and it is in the water or Mires the Most entire bones are found."
Nonetheless, Clark’s party persisted and by the end of their stay had collected several hundred specimens. The majority, including teeth, upper and lower jaws, tusk fragments, a rib fragment, limb bones and foot bones, were from the "Mammoth" (American mastodon) (2). Most of the remaining fossils belonged to what Clark identified as the "Eliphant" (woolly mammoth) (3). Several other species, identified as a "sheep or goat species", a horse, a "Moose Deer" or "Elk", and a "Buffalow Cow," were also collected (4).
Fearing a mishap like those that afflicted so many of the earlier attempts to recover fossils from Big Bone Lick, William Clark divided the fossils into two parts. One part was sent immediately to Jefferson in Washington. The second was stored at his brother’s (George Rogers Clark) residence in Clarksville, Indiana. As it turns out, the first part would make it to Jefferson without incident. Unfortunately, the part stored in Clarksville would later be lost when the ship carrying it to Washington via New Orleans was impounded in Havana.
Jefferson was delighted with Clark’s effort. In response to Clark’s November 10, 1807 report, which included a detailed inventory of the first shipment, the president wrote Clark on December 19:
"The collection you have made is so considerable that it has suggested an idea I had not before. I see that after taking out for the Philosophical society [American Philosophical Society] everything they shall desire there will remain such a collection of duplicates, as will be a grateful offering from me to the National institute of France for whom I am bound to do something." (5)
The first —and only successful— shipment from Clark arrived at the White House in March of 1808. Jefferson had these fossils spread out in a large otherwise unused room that later would become known as the East Room. By late June, Jefferson was joined by Caspar Wistar, a prominent Philadelphian physician and the foremost anatomist of the United States (6). Together they divided the fossils into three groups. The first went to the American Philosophical Society. This group would later be transferred to the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia and become known as the Thomas Jefferson Fossil Collection. The second group would be sent to the Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle (the Natural History Museum in Paris). It would arrive in September of 1808. The third —and smallest— part would become part of Jefferson's personal collection at Monticello.
Next: Part 9 - Meanwhile, in Europe...
Print Resources:
- Bedini, S.A. 1985. "Thomas Jefferson and American Vertebrate Paleontology." Virginia Division of Mineral Resources Publication 61. Charlottesville. 26 pp.
- Rice, H.C. Jr. 1951. "Jefferson's Gift of Fossils to the Museum of Natural History in Paris." Proceedings of the American Philsophical Society. 95: 599-610.
- Semonin, P. 2002. American Monster: How the nation's first prehistoric creature became a symbol of national identity. New York & London: New York University Press.
Notes:
- The Corps of Discovery was the team of explorers that participated in the Lewis & Clark Expedition (1804-1806). The expedition was authorized by Jefferson to explore the Louisiana Purchase and discover a navigable route via the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean. As part of the exploration, Meriwether Lewis was instructed to report (and collect) on the unexplored region's natural history, including animals "which may be deemed rare or extinct". Although the "mammoth" wasn't explicitly named in Lewis' instructions, the consensus among historians is that Jefferson hoped that the expedition would find the celebrated animal still roaming the West. On the other hand, Jefferson explicitly stated this hope of discovering living "mammoths" in an 1803 letter to the French naturalist Bernard Lacépède. [go back]
- Clark's included some of his beliefs about the "mammoth" in his letters to Jefferson. Like many of his contemporaries, he believed that it was an awesome predator. He also believed it was now extinct. [go back]
- William Clark believed that the "eliphant" at Big Bone Lick was the same animal as the Siberian mammoth. This conclusion was corroborated one year later by the French scientists Bernard Lacépède and George Cuvier. This animal in now known as the woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius). See About the Woolly Mammoth for more information. (go back]
- Four other extinct species were collected during the Clark-Jefferson expedition. Considering his lack of formal anatomical training, Clark did remarkably well in identifying these unknown species; it would take trained anatomists and paleontologists several decades later to reasonably identify these animals. The "sheep or goat species" was probably Harlan's Musk Ox (Bootherium bombifrons). The horse was probably an extinct native species, the ancient horse (Equus complicatus). The "Buffalow Cow" was the ancient bison (Bison antiquus). The "Moose Deer" or "Elk" was the Stag Moose (Cervalces scotti). [go back]
- While he was an American minister to France during the 1780s, Jefferson became aquainted with some of the younger naturalists at the Cabinet du Roi (Royal Cabinet of Curiosities), including Bernard Lacépède, Andrè Thouin and Faujas de Saint-Fond. They provided access to the impressive natural history collection and helped Jefferson in his efforts to meet with the leading naturalist of the period, Buffon. (go back]
- Caspar Wistar (1761-1818) was the leading American authority of fossil vertebrates during the late 18th century and early 19th century. He correctly identified Jefferson's "Giant Claw" (Megalonyx) as a giant sloth. He also published his analysis on two animals from Big Bone Lick that would later be known as the Stag-Moose and Harlan's Musk Ox [go back]
Image Credits
- After a portrait of William Clark by Charles Willson Peale, 1810. Image courtesy of the Independence Historical National Park, Philadelphia.
www.nps.gov/inde/ [go back]