The eight maps chosen for this exhibit represent geographical concepts before, during and after the Lewis and Clark expedition. As the expedition began with the search for rivers and waterways to the Northwest Passage, the exhibit begins with three distinct and noteworthy maps; the first being Peter Pond’s 1785 Map of Western North America. This particular map was used as a model for Thomas Jefferson’s concept of a Northwest Passage. It was Jefferson’s contention that the Northwest Passage would allow greater economic strength and superiority through trade routes. The second map is Captain George Vancouver’s 1798 A Chart Shewing part of the Coast of North America. This map was important because it portrayed the existence of the Columbia River, a passageway that was the “key to a vast country”. Aaron Arrowsmith’s Map exhibiting all the new discoveries in the interior parts of North America…1802 was the map that Jefferson used to delineate the expedition in 1803; it was considered the standard excellent map, as Arrowsmith was a renowned London mapmaker.

Three more maps depict what Jefferson and Lewis hoped would be the geography of the western American continent. These three maps represent optimism, and current notions of geography. As mentioned in the exhibit, nineteenth century cartographers relied upon knowledge from Native Americans, fur traders, explorers and math. In addition, conjecture and wishful thinking had an influence on cartography. Such conjecture is represented in Lewis's Copy of the Nicholas King Map of North America (1803), Lewis’s Map of Louisiana (1804), and A Map of North America Based on Early Findings of Lewis and Clark (1805). Lewis's Copy of the Nicholas King Map of North America, created in 1803, outlined the expedition and its hopes for western waterways and edens. As well, Lewis’s Map of Louisiana also construed the “ideal” west, with rich fertile river valleys and open passages. A Map of North America Based on Early Findings of Lewis and Clark was created during the period the Corps of Discovery was camped at Fort Mandan.

The exhibit ends with the Frazer Map and the Lewis and Clark Track Map. The Frazer map is notable in its insistent representation of waterways through the Rockies, albeit after the expedition. The Lewis and Clark Track Map displayed both pre-expedition geographical perceptions as well as post-expedition discoveries. It is suitable that Rivers, Edens, Empires ends with this map, as the 1814 Track Map was used in the first book about the expedition; Nicholas Biddle’s 1814 The History of the Expedition under the Command of Captains Lewis and Clark.