[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 33, Number 46 (Monday, November 17, 1997)]
[Pages 1781-1782]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at a Screening of Ken Burns' ``Lewis and Clark''

November 10, 1997

    Thank you very much. Please be seated. Welcome to the White House. 
To Ken and to his daughters; Dayton Duncan and his family; Harry Pierce, 
the vice chair of GM; Elizabeth Campbell, founder of WETA; Michael 
Jandreau, the chairman of the Lower Brule Sioux tribe; and of course, a 
special word of welcome to Stephen Ambrose, whose magnificent book 
inspired this great film that Ken has done. To all the historians and 
actors who brought this story to life, you're all welcome here.
    I have looked forward to this night since February when Ken Burns 
came to screen his great film on Thomas Jefferson. That night I asked 
him to come back when the new film was done so we could set up Lewis and 
Clark artifacts in the foyer, the way Jefferson did. They're out there--
actually, he had them here in the East Room at one point. But I hope 
you've had a chance to go out and see them, and if you haven't, I hope 
you will see them. They are the actual, real McCoy. And I wasn't sure at 
the time I said we would produce them whether we could or not, how many 
there were, and what they would look like. But I'm well pleased, and I 
hope that you will be when you get to see them.
    I also thought we ought to watch the film here in the East Room 
where the expedition really began. Meriweather Lewis lived and worked in 
the East Room when he was Jefferson's personal aide. Mr. Jefferson's 
office was just down the hall, and he actually had carpenters create two 
rooms for Lewis on the south side of the East Room here, where Abigail 
Adams used to hang her wash. There. [Laughter]
    Over dinner, Jefferson tutored his protege in geography and the 
natural sciences, broadening his horizons so that Lewis and Clark 
eventually could broaden the Nation's. It's not hard to see why Ken 
Burns embraced the Lewis and Clark story. The journey of

[[Page 1782]]

learning he embarks on with each new subject is really quite like Lewis' 
journey of discovery.
    And if Ken Burns is the filmmaking Meriwether Lewis, then perhaps 
Dayton Duncan is the wise William Clark of this project. Like Lewis and 
Clark, Ken and Dayton have been good friends for a decade before they 
started this recent journey and became even better friends along the 
way.
    Looking back with new perspective on the story of Lewis and Clark 
exemplifies what Hillary and I had in mind when we announced the White 
House Millennium Program in August. Celebrating our new millennium will 
be an international event, but we'll also mark it in a uniquely American 
way, by highlighting American creativity, innovation, and our insatiable 
desire to explore, as we're doing here tonight.
    Lewis and Clark were America's foremost explorers, not only mapping 
out the contours of a continent but also, in profound ways, the 
frontiers of our imagination. In that way, they are the forebears of 
those who have given us the recent Mars expedition, those who are 
building the international space station, those who are hunting for the 
mysteries of the human genome, those who are looking for answers to the 
challenge of global climate change.
    We are grateful that Ken and Dayton, that Stephen Ambrose, Gerard 
Baker, James Ronda, Gary Moulton, and others have helped to enrich our 
appreciation of Lewis and Clark. That is a very precious gift to future 
generations. Over the next 3 years, we hope to inspire many others to 
offer similar gifts in celebration of a new century and a new 
millennium. We want to encourage all Americans to participate in the 
millennium celebration in ways that help us to honor our past and 
imagine the future. And we'll launch a cultural showcase here at the 
White House to highlight our artists, our scholars, our visionaries.
    But I don't want to get ahead of ourselves. Tonight we're here to 
see ``Lewis and Clark.'' And for that I turn to the incomparable Ken 
Burns.

Note: The President spoke at 7:10 p.m. in the East Room at the White 
House. In his remarks, he referred to Ken Burns and Dayton Duncan, 
coproducers of the film; author Stephen E. Ambrose; Gerard Baker, 
Superintendent, Little Bighorn National Battlefield Monument; and James 
P. Ronda and Gary E. Moulton, program advisers.