The Corps of Discovery

The largest and most historically accurate monument to Lewis and Clark and Thomas Jefferson's transcontinental ideal of the Corps of Discovery

This book tells the story of the creation of the Lewis and Clark Monument in Kansas City Missouri. How Kansas City banker, Jonathan Kemper conceived the idea of a monument to Lewis and Clark for Kansas City and how Eugene Daub, sculptor, was selected to create the Corps of Discovery monument in bronze, the largest and most historically accurate monument to commemorate Thomas Jefferson's expedition that transformed the face of America. * * * The book should have appeal not only to Lewis and Clark fans but also to Blacks of all nationalities, and Native Americans. * * * The Market for the Book: In addition to Lewis and Clark specialists and the general reader, who is interested in American history, the American West, and public monuments, the book would have particular appeal for the enormous population of Lewis and Clark buffs and collectors throughout the country and abroad. International interest in the American West is considerable, especially in Germany, where the books of the German writer Karl May (1842-1912) fed generations of his countrymen the Buffalo Bill fantasies that sold 100 million copies of May's books there. The Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation in Great Falls, Montana, has a membership of approximately 1,100, who subscribe to the organization's periodical, We Proceeded On, which has extensive links to Lewis and Clark groups, libraries, museums, historical societies, and to Lewis and Clark buffs and collectors throughout the country and abroad.

Donald Martin Reynolds is an art historian, consultant, and the author of numerous books, articles, and reviews on American art and architecture, which include Hiram Powers and His Ideal Sculpture ("The Unveiled Soul"), 1977; Masters of American Sculpture, from the American Renaissance to the Millennium, 1994; "Remove Not the Ancient Landmark": Public Monuments and Moral Values. ed., 1996, re-published in 2021 as a first edition in the Routledge Revivals issue of academic works; Monuments and Masterpieces: Histories and Views of Public Sculpture in New York City, 1988, rev. ed. 1997; The Architecture of New York City, 1984, rev. ed. 1994; "For Our Freedom and Yours, the Art and Life of Andrew Pitynski, Portrait of an American Master, 2015. His Cambridge University Press introductions to 19th Century Art and Architecture (1988, 1992) have been published in several languages. He taught at Columbia University in New York City from 1970 to 2003, where he earned his doctorate in art history. Dr. Reynolds established The Symposium on Public Monuments (1991-2015) as an annual tribute to the renowned art historian Rudolf Wittkower, whose lectures on the interrelationship between East and West, from ancient to modern times, he compiled and edited in The Impact of Non-European Civilizations on the Art of the West, 1989, the year he compiled and edited The Writings of Rudolf Wittkower, Bibliography. Philanthropist and art collector Sam Dorsky funded the symposium for 1991 and 1992. Following his death, his children (David, Noah, and Karen Dorsky) continued to fund the symposium in his name until 2008. It was then funded for its final seven years by bequests of Elaine Zlobik Skinner and Joan Zlobik Gdosky, sisters of Nancy Zlobik Reynolds. Dr. Reynolds was consultant to the Kemper Foundation for The Corps of Discovery, the monument to Lewis and Clark in Kansas City, Missouri, unveiled in 2000. As consultant to the National Black Catholic Congress, he designed and supervised the execution of the sculpture program, a Sacra Conversazione (holy conversation), for Our Mother of Africa Chapel, the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Washington, D. C., 2001. He is the recipient of ArtWatch International's Frank Mason Prize, 2012, for "…his dedication to art and the preservation of our cultural patrimony," and in 2016, The Polish American Veterans Association awarded him the Paderewski Medal for his book on Andrew Pitynski. In 2018, he was elected a Member Emeritus of The National Sculpture Society, and in 2020 he was awarded the Society's 2020 Sculpture House Award "in recognition of his extraordinary encouragement of and contributions to American Sculpture, and in acknowledgment of his support of the National Sculpture Society as an Allied Professional Member." He lives in New York City with his wife, writer and editor, Nancy Zlobik Reynolds.