The Peabody Museum's Lewis and Clark collection is a set of magnificent eighteenth- and early-nineteenth-century objects long thought to be the only surviving ethnographic items acquired by Lewis and Clark and their Corps of Discovery during their epic exploration of the American West. The pieces include spectacular buffalo robes and ceremonial pipes, painted, quilled, and beaded dresses and baby carriers, and woven basketry hats from tribes ranging from the Upper Missouri River area to the Northwest Coast. This postcard book contains a selection of eleven of the finest pieces in the collection, beautifully photographed by renowned museum photographer Hillel S. Burger. The removable cards are interleafed with informative discussions of the objects, their collection histories, and significance, by anthropologist Castle McLaughlin. This exquisite little book commemorates the ongoing bicentennial of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

Castle McLaughlin is Associate Curator of Native American Ethnography at the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University.

Hillel S. Burger is a professional photographer.

Read More by Hillel S. Burger:

• The Hall of the North American Indian: Change and Continuity
• Encounters with the Americas
• Makers and Markets: The Wright Collection of Twentieth-Century Native American Art
• A Noble Pursuit: The Duchess of Mecklenburg Collection from Iron Age Slovenia
• Masterpieces of the Peabody Muesum, Harvard University
• Painted by a Distant Hand: Mimbres Pottery of the American Southwest
• Feeding the Ancestors: Tlingit Carved Horn Spoons
• Artistry of the Everyday: Beauty and Craftsmanship in Berber Art