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Tools of the Trade
Photograph by Ira Block
Though Meriwether Lewis owned several watches, he described a “silver watch with double cases” that became fouled with dust in North Dakota, possibly the timepiece pictured above. Clark’s watch fob, a miniature compass and chain made to resemble a surveyor’s chain, was likely a gift to the explorer after his return. Clark later became governor of the Missouri Territory and Missouri superintendent of Indian affairs, a position he held until his death in 1838. Lewis, appointed governor of the Louisiana Territory, died mysteriously of a gunshot wound in 1809. |
