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National Geographic Society

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Flag of the National Geographic Society

The National Geographic Society was founded in the United States on January 27, 1888, by 33 men interested in "organizing a society for the increase and diffusion of geographical knowledge." They had begun discussing forming the Society two weeks earlier on January 13, 1888. Gardiner Greene Hubbard became its first president and his son-in-law, Alexander Graham Bell, eventually succeeded him. Its purpose is to advance the general knowledge of geography and the world among the general public. To this end, as one of the world's largest not-for-profit educational and scientific organizations, it sponsors and funds scientific research and exploration, and publishes as its official journal, the magazine, National Geographic, as well as other publications and products in furtherance of its mission. It also has heavy involvement in education, including an educational foundation furthering geography education.

National Geographic Magazine

Cover of January, 1915 National Geographic

The National Geographic Magazine, later shortened to National Geographic, published its first issue nine months after the Society was founded. It has become one of the world's best-known magazines and is immediately identifiable by the characteristic yellow border running around the edge of its cover. This distinctive yellow border is a registered trademark of National Geographic.

The magazine consists of 12 issues per year (one per month), with occasional special edition issues. In addition to being well-known for articles about scenery, history, and the most distant corners of the world; the magazine has also long been recognized for its book-like quality and its standard of photography. This standard makes it the home to some of the highest-quality photojournalism in the world. The magazine often featured some color photography even in the early 20th century when this technology was still rare.

The magazine is also well-known for frequently providing detailed maps of regions that are visited. The Society's map archives have even been used by the United States government in instances where its own cartographic resources were limited. In 2001 National Geographic released an 8 CD-Rom set containing all its maps from 1888 to December 2000. Subscribers to the magazine frequently keep old issues (most other magazines tend to be discarded after a household uses them), and subscribers can get special cases to contain each yearly volume.

In 1960, the magazine started publishing photographs on its covers, which had previously contained only text. In subsequent years, the magazine shed its famous oak leaf trim.

National Geographic is infamous for their articles and pictures on South American, South Pacific and Sub-Saharan tribes where the climate is extremely humid and hot. Young, furtive, lonely and socially impaired adolescent males in North America hunt through stacks of old issues looking pictures on these tribes. It's known as poor-man's pornography. This tradition for adolescent males has always been in practice ever since the magazine came out in the late 1800's.

One cover photo in 1985 was of an Afghan refugee, a young girl with piercing green eyes. Her image became world famous. After the US-led invasion of Afghanistan a search was conducted for the girl. She was identified in 2002 as Sharbat Gula, a Pashtun. Her story was told in the March 2003 issue of National Geographic.

In 1995, National Geographic began publishing in Japanese, its first local language edition. The magazine is now published in a number of different languages around the world, including: Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, and Turkish.

In April 2005, an Indonesian edition began, published by Gramedia Majalah - Jakarta. A Bulgarian edition of the magazine will launch in November, 2005.

Other publications

In addition to its famous flagship magazine, the Society publishes four other periodicals:

  • National Geographic Kids: launched in 1975 as National Geographic World
  • National Geographic Traveler: launched in 1984
  • National Geographic Adventure: launched in 1999
  • National Geographic Explorer: classroom magazine launched in 2001.

The Society previously published:

  • The National Geographic School Bulletin, magazine similar to the National Geographic but aimed at grade school children, was published weekly during the school year from 1919 to 1975, when it was replaced by National Geographic World.
  • During the 1980s and 1990s, it published a short-lived research journal.

The Society has also published maps, atlases, and numerous books.


Television

Main article : National Geographic Channel

The National Geographic Society has also explored the use of television as a way to bring the travels of its correspondents and its educational and scientific mission into people's homes. National Geographic specials as well as television series have been shown on PBS and other networks in the United States and terrestially globally for many years. In 1997 internationally and in 2001 in the United States, the Society launched its own television network, the National Geographic Channel (NGC) for cable and satellite viewers, which has widespead distribution.

Support for research & projects

The Society has helped sponsor many expeditions and research projects over the years, including:

The Society sponsors many socially-based projects including AINA, a Kabul-based organization dedicated to developing an independent Afghan media.

The Society also sponsors the National Geographic Bee, an annual geographic contest for American middle-school students. Every two years, it conducts an international geography competition. The most recent was held in Budapest, Hungary during the summer of 2005.

Hubbard Medal

The Hubbard Medal is awarded by the National Geographic Society for distinction in exploration, discovery, and research. The medal is named for Gardiner Greene Hubbard, first National Geographic Society president.

The Hubbard Medal has been presented 33 times in the past. Recipients include polar explorers Robert Peary in 1906, Roald Amundsen in 1907, Capt. Robert Bartlett in 1909, Sir Ernest Shackleton in 1910 and Richard E. Byrd in 1926; aviators Charles Lindbergh in 1927 and Anne Morrow Lindbergh in 1934; anthropologists Louis Leakey and Mary Leakey in 1962; Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong, Edwin Aldrin and Michael Collins in 1970; anthropologist Richard Leakey in 1994; conservationist Jane Goodall in 1995; underwater explorer Robert Ballard in 1996; and balloonists Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones in 1999.

Naming controversy with Persia (Iran)

The magazine has recently been accused by thousands of its readers across the globe of failing to keep its objectives in focus in the names used on maps of Middle East in its 2005 atlas. In its newest atlas the National Geographic has labeled the islands of Greater and Lesser Tunbs and Abu Musa recognized as being "Occupied by Iran, Claimed by the United Arab Emirates". National Geographic has also included alternate Arabic names for the Persian (Iranian) islands of Lavan and Kish, and listed "Arabian Gulf" as an alternate name for the Persian Gulf. This resulted in heavy protests by many Persians (Iranians), most specially the Internet user community, which led to the Iranian government acting on the issue and banning the distribution of the society's publications in Iran.

National Geographic has since conceded that the use of the Arabian name "Qeys" for the island of Kish was inaccurate. It has also removed any allusions to the status of the three islands. In addition, "Arabian Gulf" has been relegated to a small note explaining: "Historically and most commonly known as the Persian Gulf, this body of water is referred to by some as the "Arabian Gulf"." These corrections have been made in the online atlas and it has promised to change future print versions accordingly. See Dispute over the name of the Persian Gulf.

See also

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