National Geographic Society

The National Geographic Society, which is based in the United States, is one of the world's largest not-for-profit educational and scientific organizations. Its research interests include geography and natural science, the promotion of environmental and historical conservation, and the study of world culture and history.

Its mission is "to increase and diffuse geographic knowledge while promoting the conservation of the world's cultural, historical, and natural resources." Its current President and CEO, John M. Fahey, Jr., says National Geographic's purpose is to inspire people to care about their planet. The Society is governed by a twenty-three member Board of Trustees composed of a group of distinguished educators, businesspeople, scientists, former governmental officials, and conservationists. The organization sponsors and funds scientific research and exploration. The Society publishes an official journal, National Geographic Magazine, and other magazines, books, and other publications in numerous languages and countries around the world. It also has an educational foundation that gives grants to education organizations and individuals to enhance geography education. Its media properties reach about 280 million people around the world monthly.

Founding of National Geographic Society

The National Geographic Society was founded in the United States on January 27, 1888, by 33 men who were 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. Bell's son-in-law Gilbert H. Grosvenor was named the first full-time editor of National Geographic Magazine, and members of the Grosvenor family have played important roles in the organization since. The current Chairman of the Board of Trustees of National Geographic is Gilbert M. Grosvenor, Jr., who received the President Medal of Freedom in 2005 for the Society's leadership for Geography education. National Geographic has been named to receive the Prince of Asturias Award for Communications and Humanity in October 2006.

Publications

Main article : National Geographic Magazine

The National Geographic Magazine, later shortened to National Geographic, published its first issue nine months after the Society was founded. The magazine has a trademarked yellow border around the edge of its cover.

There are 12 monthly issues of National Geographic per year, plus additional map supplements. On rare occasions, special issues of the magazine are also created. It contains articles about geography, popular science, world history, current events and photography. The National Geographic magazine is currently published in 31 language editions in many more countries around the world.

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

National Geographic Kids: launched in 1975 as National Geographic World, names changed in 2001.
National Geographic Traveler: launched in 1984
National Geographic Adventure: launched in 1999
National Geographic Explorer: classroom magazine launched in 2001 as National Geographic for Kids

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 research journal which later closed.

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

Television

Main article : National Geographic Channel

Stories by the National Geographic Society are shown on television. 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. (The Geographic series in the U.S. started on CBS in 1964, moved to ABC in 1973 and shifted to PBS in 1975. It has featured stories on scientific figures like Louis Leakey and Jacques Cousteau. The specials' theme music is by Elmer Bernstein, also adopted by the National Geographic Channel.

In 1997 internationally and in 2001 in the United States, the Society launched, in part ownership with other entities like News Corporation and NBC, television network, the National Geographic Channel (NGC) for cable and satellite viewers, which has global distribution.

National Geographic has also produced a feature film based on the diary of a Russian submarine commander starring Harrison Ford in The Widowmaker, and most recently retooling a French-made documentary for U.S. distribution with a new score and script narrated by Morgan Freeman called March of the Penguins, which received an Academy Award for the Best Documentary in 2006.

Support for research & projects

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

Codex Tchacos - (conservation and translation of the only known surviving copy of the Gospel of Judas)
Ian Baker (Discovers hidden waterfall of the Tsangpo Gorge, Tibet)
Robert Ballard - (RMS Titanic discovery)
Robert Bartlett - (Arctic Exploration)
George Bass - (Undersea archaeology - bronze age trade)
Lee Berger - (Oldest footprints of modern humans ever found)
Hiram Bingham - (Machu Picchu Excavation)
Richard E. Byrd - (First flight over South Pole)
Jacques-Yves Cousteau - (Undersea exploration)
Mike Fay - (MegaTransect and MegaFlyover in Africa)
Dian Fossey - (Mountain gorillas)
Birute Galdikas - (Orangutans)
Jane Goodall - (Chimpanzees)
Robert F. Griggs - (Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes)
Louis and Mary Leakey - (Discovery of manlike Zinjanthropus, more than 1.75 million years old)
Gustavus McLeod - (First flight to the North Pole in an open-air cockpit aircraft)
Robert Peary and Matthew Henson - (North Pole Expedition)
Paul Sereno - (Dinosaurs)
Spencer Wells - (The Genographic Project)
Xu Xing - (Discovery of fossil dinosaurs in China that have distinct feathers)

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.

References

External links

Official websites National Geographic Online
MapMachine
National Geographic Channel

Additional information "How They Found National Geographic's 'Afghan Girl'" (March 7, 2003)
Website criticising the National Geographic on geographical names—describes the Iranian geographic naming controversy
National Geographic and the National Iranian American Council discuss the naming dispute (NIAC press release dated December 7, 2004)

Photos, maps, and other images Society's flag

National Geographic related humor: Parody of National Geographic
National Geographic for Kids (Cartoons and Games)

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