THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY: STUDY & SCIENCE

The National Geographic Magazine, 1915

Today, The Grandma is at home, again. After her Austrian tour, she has been looking for a place for her new souvenirs and she has found an interesting fascicle of National Geographic, the magazine edited by a society that was born in Washington on a day like today in 1888.

The Grandma is a subscriber of this famous publication and she receives the new number every month in her address. She likes History, Archaeology and Environment and National Geographic is a mix of all of this with great reports and excellent photos. Joseph de Ca'th Lon is also a great fan of this society and this magazine and he gave this first magazine to her some years ago.

Before tidying her room, The Grandma had studied a new lesson of her Elementary Language Practice manual (Grammar 72 & Checkpoint 12).

More information: Time 

The National Geographic Society (NGS), headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States, is one of the largest non-profit scientific and educational organizations in the world. Founded in 1888, its interests include geography, archaeology, and natural science, the promotion of environmental and historical conservation, and the study of world culture and history.

The National Geographic Society's logo is a yellow portrait frame -rectangular in shape- which appears on the margins surrounding the front covers of its magazines and as its television channel logo. In partnership with 21st Century Fox, the Society operates the magazine, TV channels, a website, worldwide events, and other media operations.

The National Geographic Society, 1988

The National Geographic Society was founded in 1888 to increase and diffuse geographic knowledge. It is governed by a board of trustees, whose 21 members include distinguished educators, business executives, former government officials and conservationists.

The organization sponsors and funds scientific research and exploration. National Geographic maintains a museum for the public in its Washington, D.C., headquarters. It has helped to sponsor popular traveling exhibits, such as the early 2010s King Tut exhibit featuring artifacts from the tomb of the young Egyptian Pharaoh; The Cultural Treasures of Afghanistan which opened in May 2008 and traveled to other cities for 18 months; and an exhibition of China's Terracotta Warriors in its Washington headquarters in 2009–10.

Its Education Foundation gives grants to education organizations and individuals to improve geography education. Its Committee for Research and Exploration has awarded more than 11,000 grants for scientific research and exploration.

More information: National Geographic

The Society's media arm is National Geographic Partners, a joint venture between 21st Century Fox and the Society, which publishes a journal, National Geographic in English, and nearly 40 local-language editions. It also publishes other magazines, books, school products, maps, and Web and film products in numerous languages and countries. National Geographic's various media properties reach more than 280 million people monthly.

The National Geographic Society began as a club for an elite group of academics and wealthy patrons interested in travel and exploration. On January 13, 1888, 33 explorers and scientists gathered at the Cosmos Club, a private club then located on Lafayette Square in Washington, D.C., to organize a society for the increase and diffusion of geographical knowledge. 

The National Geographic Society Founders

After preparing a constitution and a plan of organization, the National Geographic Society was incorporated two weeks later on January 27. Gardiner Greene Hubbard became its first president and his son-in-law, Alexander Graham Bell, succeeded him in 1897.

In 1899, Bell's son-in-law Gilbert Hovey Grosvenor was named the first full-time editor of National Geographic magazine and served the organization for fifty-five years (until 1954), and members of the Grosvenor family have played important roles in the organization since. Bell and Gilbert Hovey Grosvenor devised the successful marketing notion of Society membership and the first major use of photographs to tell stories in magazines.

The National Geographic Magazine, later shortened to National Geographic, published its first issue in October 1888, nine months after the Society was founded, as the Society's official journal, a benefit for joining the tax-exempt National Geographic Society. Starting with the February 1910 (Vol XXI, No. 2) issue, the magazine began using its now famous trademarked yellow border around the edge of its covers.

There are 12 monthly issues of National Geographic per year. The magazine contains articles about geography, popular science, world history, culture, current events and photography of places and things all over the world and universe.

National Geographic magazine is currently published in 40 local-language editions in many countries around the world. Combined English and other language circulation is around 6.8 million monthly, with some 60 million readers.

More information: Trolley Tours

I'm a big fan of 'National Geographic', 

the magazine and the channel.

Anything to do with the natural world.

For years, when I was younger, 

I was convinced I would be a nature photographer, 

but that didn't pan out.

Tom Weston-Jones