MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Which way is west? At the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, there's a compass that helped two important people answer that question. In honor of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, our series, America In Pursuit, explores culture, history and objects in American life. NPR's Andrew Limbong tells us about that compass.
ANDREW LIMBONG, BYLINE: In 1803, the United States agreed to pay France $15 million for a huge chunk of northern American land west of the Mississippi in what was called the Louisiana Purchase. Not knowing exactly what was there or who lived on the land, President Thomas Jefferson hires Meriwether Lewis and his buddy William Clark to go find out.
JON GRINSPAN: So they undergo this amazing adventure, going from St. Louis to Oregon and back.
LIMBONG: That's Jon Grinspan, curator of political history at the museum, which has on display an original compass they took with them on the trip.
GRINSPAN: They bought it in Philadelphia from a compass maker there. It's the nice one. They brought a couple, and the pretty one survived, which is good for us. It's silver-plated with this mahogany box on it and everything.
LIMBONG: But of course, a compass only tells you so much. This is land that's brand new to them - new terrain, new wildlife.
GRINSPAN: They don't know their way. They really couldn't have made it without the aid of Sacagawea and other Native guides who helped them and gave them horses.
LIMBONG: In the grand scheme of things, which way should we go? That's the easy question. The tougher ones are, why? And, what's next?
GRINSPAN: There's this amazing moment, first with the Declaration of Independence, and then with the Louisiana Purchase, where the nation starts looking west, really redefining the whole orientation with the compass of the nation. It's also pretty bad news for people along the way whose stations are destroyed in the process.
LIMBONG: Not long after their expedition came the westward expansion of the United States and this idea of manifest destiny, a process that would eventually lead to the genocide of Native Americans. Looking back on it today, there's no way Lewis and Clark could have known all that would come with U.S. expansion in the decades to come. The whole point of exploring is you don't know what you're going to find. They just knew the general direction the country was headed.
Andrew Limbong, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF TOMMY EMMANUEL'S "LEWIS & CLARK") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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