Dr. Berry communicated his enthusiasm for undergraduate research today to both Honors Seminar classes. He spoke of the research he and his honors students from Ouachita Baptist University had conducted over 12 years ago.
The genesis of that research, Berry said, were passing comments by two professors made while he was still a freshman in college. Those comments concerned the Hunter-Dunbar Expedition of 1804, one of four commissioned by president Thomas Jefferson shortly after the Louisiana Purchase. The Hunter-Dunbar Expedition was virtually unknown compared to the much more famous Lewis and Clark Expedition.
Berry described how he and his students slowly unraveled the story behind the Hunter-Dunbar trip up the Red and Ouachita Rivers. Theirs was the first expedition to report back to Jefferson and the first to describe parts of Louisiana and Arkansas, including Hot Springs, in English.
Berry and his students went on to make an Emmy Award winning documentary, The Forgotten Expedition, for PBS.
How they acquired the original journal and the compass was the highlight of the talk. On the last day of filming the crew was at the ancestral home of the Dunbars. They learned that one of the members of the Dunbar family had possession of both and he later agreed to donate them to Ouachita Baptist University.
Berry concluded by noting that once a research project begins one never knows where it will lead. In this case it led to a fascinating story about a barely remembered part of American history.
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