Osage Cover

On May 30, 1804, following a night of heavy rain, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark led their famous expedition into what was then known as the lands of the Osage Nation, and after covering about 14 miles along the Missouri River, they set up camp near the site of what is today Chamois, Missouri.^{1 2} The 130th anniversary of their travels that day was commemorated by the cachet on this cover mailed in 1934.

The front of the cover bears a poor impression of an Osage City, Missouri, postmark, while a June 1, 1934, duplex cancellation from Meredith, New Hampshire, the envelope’s destination, adorns the reverse. A single copy of the 14¢ American Indian stamp vastly overpaid the then current first-class letter rate of 3¢ per ounce, but the stamp’s subject does mesh nicely with the cover’s cachet.

Although Lewis and Clark did meet with Osage chiefs well in advance of their expedition, those tribal leaders were visiting President Thomas Jefferson in Washington at the time the Expedition passed through their lands.³ The cachet’s wording “Counciling With Indian Tribes” is thus somewhat inappropriate simply because they did not encounter the Osage people during the portion of their jouney that this cover commemorates; however, the producer of this envelope reused the same cachet with different wording to mark the 130th anniversary of the Lewis and Clark Expedition’s later arrival in the area occupied by the Maha or Omaha in August 1804.⁴

Next: Meriwether Lewis cover

References

1. May 30, 1804. Journals of the Lewis & Clark Expedition. Accessed 20 Mar. 2023.
2. May 30, 1804. Discover Lewis & Clark. Accessed 20 Mar. 2023.
3. The Osage. The University of Missouri-St. Louis. Accessed 20 Mar. 2023.
4. The Osages. Discover Lewis & Clark. Accessed 20 Mar. 2023.

Published 2023-03-21