Search
I'm looking for documents that
Search Help
More options
"And" feature
Limit the results by searching for more than one word by using the "and" feature. For example, if you were interested in finding the entry in which Lewis was shot by Cruzatte while hunting for elk, you could enter "Cruzatte" in the first box, followed by "elk" and "wound" in the next two boxes. (Entering Lewis in one of the boxes is not recommended, as Lewis is mentioned in almost every journal entry and thus it would not help to limit the search — the same goes for Clark.)
"Or" feature
The use of "or" may help if you don't know the exact word used, which is very likely with the journal materials. If you are looking for instances of the men dining on dog meat, simply enter "dog" in the top box, followed by "supper" and "dine" in the next two boxes. Use the drop down menu to select "or" between "supper" and "dine."
"Do not contain" feature
If the above search limits the results too much, you could use the "do not contain" feature to simply eliminate some entries that would not be relevant. Enter "dog" in the first box, followed by "do not contain" "prairie" and "do not contain" "Seaman" to exclude references to prairie dogs or to Lewis's dog Seaman.
"Look in"
In most cases, this is most useful left at "all documents." However, if you are interested in finding a specific journal entry by Clark and not anything that has been written about Clark's entry, you could select "journal entries only." The last option on the "look in" pull-down menu is for additional texts. This would be useful if you were only interested in what was written about the subject in James Ronda's "Lewis and Clark among the Indians" or Paul Johnsgard's "Lewis and Clark on the Great Plains" or any of the other works found on this website.
Basic search
Simply enter the word you wish to find and the search engine will search for every instance of the word in the journals. For example: Fight. All instances of the use of the word fight will show up on the results page.
Wildcard search
Using a wildcard (*) will increase the odds of finding the results you are seeking. For example: Fight*. The search results will display every instance of fight, fights, fighting, etc. More than one wildcard may be used. For example: *ricar*. This search will return most references to the Aricara tribe, including Ricara, Ricares, Aricaris, Ricaries, Ricaree, Ricareis, and Ricarra.
Capitalization
Searches are not case sensitive. For example: george d* will come up with the same results as George D*.
Phrase search
Searching for a specific phrase may help narrow down the results. Rather long phrases are no problem. For example: This white pudding we all esteem.
Subsequent searches
Because of the creative spellings used by the journalists, it may be necessary to try your search multiple times. For example: P*ro*. This search brings up numerous variant spellings of the French word pirogue, "a large dugout canoe or open boat." Searching for P*r*gue will bring up other variant spellings. Searching for canoe or boat also may be helpful.
