Apart from his editing and publishing of those papers, Jackson was also noted for his consulting and editorship in the Lewis and Clark project, gathering and compiling related manuscripts into one comprehensive study.

In 1946 he earned his master's degree in English from the University of Iowa, after which he authored a work about Johann Amerbach, a Renaissance printer from Germany who lived in the 16th century.

In the Spring of 1958, the committee's endorsement lead to a search, where they approached Donald Jackson to take the initiative and begin work assembling and organizing George Washington's papers for publication.

After the search committee explained they were not necessarily looking for a Washington scholar, but someone who had experience managing an editing office and dealing with volumes of manuscripts, he was finally persuaded to accept their offer.

The expedition party, besides with Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, consisted of writers, naturalists, mapmakers, and artists; Jackson considered them "the writingest explorers of their time".

In his address to the Centennial Conference of the Missouri Historical Society in March of that year, Jackson brought attention to the situation, stating that using the myriad and different journals to assess the expedition's history proved to be very involved and time-consuming and that "some kind of standard edition" was badly needed.

Serving as a project consultant, Donald Jackson procured the cooperation of historical institutions that held Lewis and Clark's original materials and ascertained the financial support available.

Jackson authored the first draft of the Lewis and Clark historical account and presented it to the National Endowment for the Humanities, which became the basis for the final proposal granted by the NEH in 1980.

[13] Jackson had written numerous journalistic articles on the exploration of the American West, with an emphasis on the Lewis and Clark Expedition and President Jefferson's involvement.