Object Status:
Unlocated
Accession Date:
Dec 28, 1809
Primary Source Reference:
Peale Museum Accessions Book, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, p. 45
Additional Source Text:
"A nation inhabiting Lewis's River within the Plains of Columbia, who had never previously seen white-men."
Notes:
The Spanish 8 reales (or a "piece of eight," or Spanish-American dollar) was the first world trade coin. Peale may well be correct that the inland tribe never had seen a white man before Lewis and Clark arrived; the coin could have been received in trade with members of other tribes along the coast that had traded with the Spanish. An example from 1770 is pictured here.
Meriwether Lewis (1774-1809) and William Clark (1770-1838) undertook their western Expedition in 1804-1806.
