Founded January 27, 1888
The National Geographic Society was established in 1888 “to increase and diffuse [spread] geographic knowledge.” It has done this by sponsoring explorations and expeditions—beginning in 1890—that investigate the planet and its inhabitants. Awarding field scientists and other researchers grants that now total four million dollars a year, the society shares its findings with the rest of the world through the National Geographic magazine. Also founded in 1888, the magazine now has an international readership of many millions. Subscribers become society members, and a portion of their magazine fees supports the organization’s scientific and educational projects.
The society was created by a diverse group of thirty-three men—geographers, explorers, teachers, lawyers, mapmakers, military officers, and businessmen—who had one thing in common: a passion for knowledge and a keen interest in discovery and human achievement. Over the course of two weeks in January 1888 they gathered in Washington, D.C., and talked about the purpose of the society, how it would be organized and run, and the qualifications of its members. On January 27 the National Geographic Society was officially founded, and headquartered in that city.
For its first president, the society chose Gardiner Greene Hubbard, a lawyer and businessman who had helped establish a school for the deaf (and promoted the experiments of his son-in-law, Alexander Graham Bell). Noting that he was neither “a scientific man, nor … a geographer” in his first speech to the organization, Hubbard added, “By my election you notify the public that the membership of our Society will not be confined to professional geographers, but will include that large number who, like myself, desire to promote special researches by others, and to diffuse the knowledge so gained, among men, so that we may all know more of the world upon which we live.”
The National Geographic Society established a Committee for Research and Exploration to sponsor expeditions and field studies around the world. Geologist Israel C. Russell led the first society-sponsored expedition to Alaska in 1890. At that time, large parts of the globe were still unexplored. In 1909 the society backed the efforts of Robert Edwin Peary, as he led the first expedition to reach the North Pole. Other society-sponsored missions of exploration and human achievement included man’s first flight over the South Pole by Richard Evelyn Byrd in 1929, and the first American expedition to reach the top of Mount Everest—the world’s highest mountain, located in the Himalayas—in 1963.
As diving equipment and craft were developed in the twentieth century, the oceans became a new frontier for exploration. The National Geographic Society supported the pioneering work of oceanographer Jacques Cousteau as he explored the wonders of the sea and its unknown inhabitants. It also backed the deep-sea hunts of ocean scientist Robert Ballard, who found the sunken hull of the Titanic in 1985 on the ocean floor. The “unsinkable” luxury liner that went down in the North Atlantic in 1912 was remarkably preserved. The world got its first glimpse of the submerged Titanic from Ballard’s deep-sea photographs, published in the National Geographic magazine.
The Committee for Research and Exploration has also sponsored scientific efforts to discover our prehistoric past and to better know the creatures with whom we share the planet. For decades the society supported the excavation work of scientists Louis and Mary Leakey in Tanzania’s Olduvai Gorge, where they unearthed hundreds of prehistoric fossils, including the remains of early man. It has given long-term funding to primatologist Jane Goodall, who has studied the chimpanzees in Tanzania’s Gombe National Park for more than thirty years. Hers has been the longest ongoing investigation of an animal species in the wild. The society also was behind the work of Dian Fossey, who studied and helped preserve the endangered mountain gorilla of Rwanda.
Today, the National Geographic Society has more ways than ever “to increase and diffuse geographic knowledge.” Television specials allow viewers to observe scientific field work and discoveries firsthand. The organization offers books, maps, globes, and other geographic items for purchase. National Geographic members can participate in the society’s educational travel tour programs. In fact, in 1984, the organization introduced the National Geographic Traveler, for readers who want to visit places profiled in the National Geographic magazine. Published six times a year, it contains practical trip-planning and travel advice.
When the magazine was first published in 1888, it was a scholarly scientific journal with no illustrations and a plain brown cover. It is now a colorful monthly filled with lively articles, stunning photographs, and supplemental maps. For the past twenty years the society has also offered a magazine of geographic discovery for young people called National Geographic World. The journal is part of the society’s junior membership, which is open to youths ages eight to fourteen. Besides a subscription to World, junior members receive posters, trading cards, and activity booklets throughout the year, and can join the magazine’s pen pal network. The magazine was recently honored with the publishing industry’s Parents’ Choice Gold Award, and has nearly one million readers.
Now in its second century, the National Geographic Society has expanded its focus to reflect today’s world. It is active in conservation efforts to protect Earth’s natural resources. The organization is also trying to improve young people’s geographic knowledge.
The National Geographic Society museum
The National Geographic Society museum—called Explorers Hall—is located near its headquarters in downtown Washington, D.C. Admission is free. There visitors can see Geographica, a permanent, hands-on exhibit about Earth and its geography. It allows participants to interact with a tornado, or to experience the dangers of Peary’s trip to the North Pole. Visitors can also feel what it’s like to fly 23,000 miles above Earth, through an interactive video program called Earth Station One presented in the museum’s amphitheater. In addition, Explorers Hall offers temporary exhibits that investigate such subjects as dinosaurs, ancient civilizations, and wildlife, and lectures and live performances are given in its auditorium.
The National Geography Bee
The National Geographic Society sponsors a yearly Geography Bee. A school interested in participation registers with the society and receives materials to use in a school-level competition. The winner of that bee then takes a written test. Students with the top one hundred scores in their state (or territory) go on to the next level of competition.
State-level bees are held in the spring, and the winner from each state goes on to the national competition, held at National Geographic Society headquarters in Washington, D.C. The fifty-seven state and territory winners compete until ten finalists remain. Those students begin a new round of competition, this time for college scholarships. The third-place winner receives $10,000 scholarship, the second-place winner is granted a $15,000 scholarship, and the National Geography Bee victor wins a $25,000 scholarship.
In recent years the National Geographic Society has also sponsored a worldwide geography competition called the International Geography Olympiad. In 1995, for instance, teams of students who had won geography bees in their home countries of Australia, Canada, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States traveled to Epcot Center at Disney World in Florida to compete. The top three groups were awarded gold, silver, or bronze medals.
NGS-The “Bee” Basics. [Online] Available http://www.nationalgeographic.com/society/ngo/geobee/basics.html, June 24, 1997.
NGS-Birth of the Society. [Online] Available http://www.nationalgeographic.com/ngs/hq/birth/, June 24, 1997.
NGS-Explorers Hall. [Online] Available http://www.nationalgeographic.com/ngs/hq/explorer/, June 24, 1997.
NGS-National Geographic Online. [Online] Available http://www.nationalgeographic.com/, April 1, 1997.
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