Caspar Wistar
Dr. Caspar Wistar (1761–1818) was a prominent Philadelphia physician and anatomist who helped prepare Meriwether Lewis for the scientific aspects of the expedition in 1803. As a professor at the University of Pennsylvania and president of the American Philosophical Society, Wistar provided Lewis with training in comparative anatomy and fossil identification, helping him recognize and describe the animal specimens encountered during the journey. The flowering plant genus Wisteria was named in his honor.
Portrait: Public Domain
Biography
Caspar Wistar (1761-1818) was a prominent Philadelphia physician and anatomist who served as one of Meriwether Lewis’s scientific tutors before the expedition. He was president of the American Philosophical Society and one of the leading naturalists in America.
Jefferson arranged for Lewis to study under Wistar in Philadelphia during the spring of 1803. Wistar instructed Lewis in anatomy, natural history, and the identification of fossil remains — subjects directly relevant to cataloging the unknown species the expedition would encounter.
Wistar’s particular interest was in paleontology and comparative anatomy. He coached Lewis on what to look for in the way of “megafauna” bones — Jefferson famously hoped the expedition might find living mastodons in the West.
The flowering plant genus Wisteria is named in Wistar’s honor (with an altered spelling by the botanist Thomas Nuttall). His contributions to Lewis’s scientific preparation helped ensure that the expedition’s natural history observations met the standards of the international scientific community.
