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John Fisher is a Lewis & Clark medical historian By Jack McNeel John Fisher might know more about the medicines of Lewis and Clark and the medicines of that era than any other person on the planet. His research is extensive and he is noted for assembling “the most definitive collection of medicine of the expedition, which includes over 60 medications I’ve identified,” he says. John is writing a book on the subject in addition to a research article on venereal disease and on mercury used
during the expedition. And he is doing this from his home near the small Idaho town of Juliaetta - practically on the trail the expedition traveled. John was raised in Pennsylvania, where he joined the army, “smartened up,” and went to college. He finished graduate school at Penn State in biology, with minors in Spanish and art. That led to searching for a teaching job in Idaho, which he landed at Lewiston. “I taught there 34 years and retired in 2002,” he says. “In 1999, I got involved in an education grant designed to put technology in the classroom using Lewis & Clark as a vehicle. I was interested in making hands-on educational historical trunks like I did in my science classes,” he says, explaining how his interest and knowledge of the expedition has evolved. Things did not go quite as he had hoped at the school, so he went off on his own to assemble collections of artifacts that represent what Lewis & Clark carried on the expedition. I was “specializing first in medicine and later science equipment and books taken on the expedition. I finally tried to get one of everything I figured they needed to have carried.” John approached the State of Idaho to see if it wanted to acquire the collection, but was unsuccessful. He then turned to the Fort Mandan Foundation in North Dakota. “We’ve put together a purchase/donation agreement, and they are acquiring my collection.” He estimates that there are roughly a thousand items; they will be part of the exhibits housed in a new $3 million addition. The medical collections include actual medicines he has purchased as chemicals (excluding opium and laudanum), plus plant specimens used on the expedition that he has collected in the field. He has assembled 20 medicine chests for universities, federal (Continued on page 19)