Thread by @LookNoFurther4

1 We live in a time when there are few public advocates for a national investment in science. It is a time for “common sense” solutions. Evidence-based scientific inquiry is denigrated as the province of “elites” & is viewed as offering no viable solutions to national problems.

2 But it hasn’t always been this way. In 1838 the fed govt made an astonishing commitment to science w/ the launch of the US South Seas Exploring Expedition [gen known as the Ex. Ex.], a 4-year mission to chart the sea areas & adjacent coastal regions of the entire Pacific Basin.

3 The Ex. Ex. consisted of six sailing vessels and 346 men and included a team of nine scientists and artists. The Ex. Ex. was one of the largest voyages of discovery in the history of Western exploration, and would mark the start of government involvement in science.

4 The Ex. Ex. retraced many of the routes taken by the British explorer CaptJames Cook in his3 Pacific voyages of the 1760s & 1770s. The Ex. Ex. made 2 trips to Antarctica, surveyed all known Pacific islands, Australia and New Zealand, and surveyed the American Pacific Northwest.

5 The Ex. Ex. documented details of the coastline, navigational hazards, locations of natural navigation aids, information on tides and currents, and the location of any structures, such as harbors.

6 The Ex. Ex. completed the first American survey of the Columbia River, the coast of California, and part of northern Mexico, making the assertion of this territorial claim feasible.look.substack.com/p/lets-make-sc…

7 The Ex. Ex. explorers would take field notes and draw sketches and maps. The great array of plant and animal life they would encounter would be brought home as specimens. Animals and birds would be shot and skinned. look.substack.com/p/lets-make-sc…
[old growth pine, Oregon]

8 Sea life would be preserved in alcohol bottles. Plants would be dried and pressed. Rocks, fossils, shells and coral would be collected in boxes. When the Ex. Ex. returned in 1842 after its four year mission, it brought home an overwhelming array of materials

9 4,000 artifacts from the various peoples and cultures;50,000 pressed specimens of 10,000 species of plants, along with 1,000 living plants and seeds for another 648 plant species;The skins, ready for mounting and display, of 2,150 birds, 134 mammals and 588 species of fish.

10 300 fossil species, 400 species of coral and 1,000 species of crustacea;208 killing jars of insects and small animals;Notebooks filled with observations of the various peoples and cultures;241 nautical charts;Meteorological, astronomical, magnetic and oceanographic data.

11 Experts have described the mountains of data collected by the Ex. Ex. as so large “they outran the intellectual resources of the country." The Ex. Ex. established the US as a prominent force within the international scientific community.

12 And the Ex. Ex. mission helped change the nature of scientific education from the pursuit of wealthy hobbyists to a recognized academic field of study.During the period from 1840 to 1860, the federal govenment funded many subsequent expeditions.

13 The costs for these expeditions and the publication of their findings represented between one-quarter and one-third of the annual federal budget. There has never been a governmental commitment to science to rival this period in American history.

14 The ExEx collection was displayed in the 265-foot long Great Hall of the newly completed Patent Office Building. [The Great Hall would later display inventor’s patent models, a Civil War hospital where Walt Whitman worked as an aide, and would host Lincoln’s 2nd inaug ball.]

15 Over the next decade, the Ex. Ex. collection at the Patent Office Building had over one hundred thousand visitors per year. The nation had its first museum. look.substack.com/p/lets-make-sc…
[Oregon]

16 In 1858, the objects of the Ex. Ex. were moved to the Smithsonian “Castle” building on the Washington Mall. The plants in the Patent Office Building greenhouse were relocated to the U.S. Botanic Garden, in it’s new building at the foot of the Capitol.

17 The merger of science & govt that had been unimaginable before the Ex. Ex. was now a reality. US international trade increased. America’s territorial claims to the Oregon & Calif. territories were strengthened. America established itself as a geopolitical power in the Pacific.

18 With the Ex. Ex., science had proven itself an invaluable tool for promoting American interests.

We need to remember this lesson. Our full report on the ExEx is below.

If you like this kind of thing, think about subscribing to our history journal.look.substack.com/p/lets-make-sc…