Alumni Gazzette
Historian Brings Lewis and Clark Adventure to Life
by Lorin Koch, ’00 and ’04
In January, the debut of the National Bicentennial Exhibition of Lewis and Clark in St. Louis, Mo., launched a two-year celebration of the historic event. Years in the making, Ben Cawthra likens the project to a film production where many different people and skills are needed to produce the final piece. Ben, project manager for the Lewis and Clark exhibition, talks about the experience and the road to his current work as senior researcher for the Missouri Historical Society (MHS).
As the exhibition begins its national
tour, what types of exhibits will a visitor see?
We have assembled nearly 500 documents and artifacts related to the journey
and to the native cultures encountered. Many original items have been lost,
but a check of Lewis’s receipts reveals many items for which we have
found duplicates in collections around the country.
Even so, this is the largest collection of original items related to the journey
gathered in one place since they returned to St. Louis in 1806. We have the
journals kept by the captains, their compasses and scientific equipment and
books, maps, items sent back to Thomas Jefferson, original plant and animal
specimens, and an array of truly amazing Indian objects from the Plains, Rockies,
and Columbia regions.
President Jefferson was quite clear that this would be a scientific expedition in addition to a diplomatic and commercial venture. That this scientific journey ended up proving that there was no Northwest Passage via the Missouri River closed a frustrating chapter in exploration history. In some ways Lewis and Clark’s achievement is extraordinary in that they made it there and back again, with Indian assistance of course, but in other ways they failed in their objectives. There was no Northwest Passage. They couldn’t persuade the Indians to pledge allegiance to the United States, either. But they were the first Americans to see most of this rugged beautiful territory, and that is significant. Add in the curious characters of Sacagawea, her baby Jean-Baptiste, the slave York, and even Lewis’s Newfoundland dog, Seaman, and you get a traveling circus that seems almost outlandish. An American story: such a variety of people moving through a land filled with such a variety of people.
What do you do on a day-to-day basis?
What is your favorite part of your job?
With the Lewis and Clark project, I coordinated with various specialist contractors
to create the exhibit components like the casework and media, was the liaison
within the institution to make sure the work got done, and managed a team
of museum professionals to complete the task. Lots of phone calls, e-mails,
reports, meetings, confusing budget analyses, and some trying post-9/11 travel.
We published a book with Smithsonian, put together quite a rich educational
Web site and created a smaller touring exhibit for the State of Missouri.
This is all in addition to the large exhibition.
The most fun I’ve had here was curating an exhibition on Miles Davis, the jazz musician who was from St. Louis. It was the first time our museum got some national exposure. I got on cbs Sunday Morning, so my five minutes of fame are complete. What could be more fun that doing a project on your favorite musician?
Why history? Why not some other field?
In college I always thought of history as my second major because I loved
literature so much. In graduate school I took some history right away and
was encouraged by several professors to continue in that field. I learned
a lot and enjoyed teaching, but it wasn’t until mhs needed research and
interpretive help for its exhibition program that I got back into it. In one
way or another, I’ve been doing it ever since. At home I still would
rather pick up fiction, though. My latest love is Flannery O’Connor.
What has your career path been since WWC?
What was your first job?
A winding road. I started working in College Relations at wwc right after
graduation, did that for two years, then went to graduate school at Washington
University in St. Louis. I took time out and worked in a big independent bookstore,
then went back.
When I reached the point of choosing between my mental health and completing my Ph.D., I started looking for a job and used an unpaid publications internship to insinuate myself into a full-time position as a book editor at mhs. I had decided to make publishing my new career, since I had skills from doing school journalism and from my English major.
How have you changed since graduating
from college? What lessons have you learned?
College is a safe place to be passionate about learning and idealistic about
the world. Sooner or later, one has to reckon with life as it is lived. Since
college, my self-knowledge has increased dramatically, and not necessarily
because I wanted it to. I think the key is to not let the life lessons entirely
compromise those earlier ideals. I don’t know that I have changed so
much as I have continued to deepen my commitment to things that matter. The
expression of gratitude for each day spent above ground. The importance of
relationships. The mindful cultivation of calm and peacefulness in a round-the-clock
world. Living with some kind of soulfulness, for lack of a better term. I
think all of that was present or was awakened during my time at wwc. But the
older I get, the more they matter to me.
What is the next project you’ll work
on?
I’m senior researcher for a Teaching American History grant project.
The museum is collaborating with area schools to develop traveling exhibitions,
curriculum units, and subject guides for grades 6-12. So I will use our collections
to help develop these teaching tools around the grand themes of American history
such as democracy and suffrage, freedom and equality, social
and labor reform, civil rights. Being a generalist in this case will be an
asset. Ben Cawthra graduated in 1989 with majors in English and history.
Ben lives in St. Louis with his wife, Becki Hartke, and stepson, Graeme.