From Thomas Jefferson to Caspar Wistar, 24 March 1804
To Caspar Wistar
Washington Mar. 24. 1804.
Dear Sir
I inclose for communication to the Philosophical society a paper from mr Dunbar of Natchez, on the subject of the Missisipi river which will be found a valuable addition to what we have already recieved from him relative to the lower country on it’s banks.
At the request of mr Lewis also of Campbell county Virginia, I inclose a paper which was accompanied by the specimens it refers to. tho’ they are in this city I have not yet recieved them, but will forward them when recieved. Accept my friendly salutations & assurances of great esteem and respect
Th: Jefferson
PoC (DLC); at foot of text: “Doctr. Wistar”; endorsed by TJ. Notation in SJL: “Dunbar’s & Lewis’s communicns.” Enclosures: (1) William Dunbar’s description of the Mississippi River and its delta; see Dunbar to TJ, 28 Jan. 1804. (2) William J. Lewis to TJ, 7 Mch. 1804.
For the actions of the American philosophical society on William Dunbar’s contribution, see Vol. 42:360n. At its meeting on 6 Apr., the read William J. Lewis’s paper in its entirety. Two weeks later, it assigned the paper to accompany the mineral specimens, which were to go to Charles Willson Peale for his collection (, Proceedings, 22, pt. 3 [1884], 350-1; , v. 2, pt. 1:661n).