The formation of the National Geographic Society, dedicated to the advancement and dissemination of specialized geographic knowledge.
The National Geographic Society origins, growing out of the meeting between a group vocational scholars and a few celebrated geographers and explorer in January 1888, in the prestigious Cosmos Club in Washington.
This society in addition to providing financial support for numerous expedition, has published the widely read National Geographic Magazine and numerous monographs.
The first National Geographic magazine was published in October 1888, as a slim, technical journal with an unassuming terra-cotta cover.
Federal scientists, including A. W Greely, John Wesley Powell, and Henry Gannet, established the society to improve intergovernmental communication on geographical issues, and also to inform people who were influential in Washington society and politics.
It too was to serve the community of scientists associated with the geographical work of the federal government , a category that included surveyors, topographers, statisticians, hydrographers, geologists and explorers.
Its first elected president was Gardiner Green Hubbard, a Boston lawyer and humanitarian who had help organize the first telephone company for Alexander Graham Bell, his son in law.
In 1903, the Hubbard and Alexander Graham Bell families presented the society with a permanent facility, Hubbard Memorial Hall, laying foundations for a tight family venture that rapidly became poplar national institution.
Expeditions are sent out under its auspices and in cooperation with other agencies.
By 1905 the Geographic was on its way to becoming one of the most ubiquitous sources of information and images about the world in American culture.
Early History of National Geographic
