First-person history

Three famous journals (facing page, left to right):

Lewis and Clark: On May 14, 1804, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark began a two-year, 8,000-mile journey to explore the wilderness of the Northwestern United States. They recorded the natural resources they saw, the native peoples, and information about many scientific matters.

Samuel Pepys: Besides being a frank observer of his life in 1660s London, Pepys was an efficient administrator for the British Navy. Thirteen years after his appointment as clerk of the Acts, he was made head of the Navy and instituted many reforms. His diary was written in shorthand.

Anne Frank: She and her family hid in the back of a warehouse in Amsterdam for two years before they were discovered in August 1944 and sent to concentration camps. Anne died early in 1945.