As European and American scientists traveled into the New World in
the 18th and 19th centuries, they saw peoples, landscapes, plants and
animals that surprised and amazed them.  Their journals give us a
vivid sense of what it was like to discover and analyze those new
worlds and you will, in one assignment, write your own journal
imagining you are voyaging with one such expedition (e.g. Lewis and
Clark across North America to the Pacific Ocean).  We will visit the
Lilly Library to handle rare and valuable original journals as well
as spend several weeks looking at the paintings and maps that the
voyagers produced. Other work will include weekly one-page papers, a
midterm and a final.  The course is taught in a lecture format with
weekly discussions that are based on readings drawn from various
journals (Cook, Bligh, La Pérouse, Bougainville, Lewis & Clark,
Humboldt, Darwin).  We will also pay close attention to writing
skills and to how to study history.