Abstract
DR. GILBERT GROSVENOR, president of the National Geographic society of Washington, D.C., was presented with a medal flamed after him at a ceremony on May 17, to mark his completing half a century as editor of the National Geographic Magazine. The Magazine, which is really of his making, now has a circulation of about two million copies a month. It was in 1899 that the President of the Society at the time was concerned about its official organ, which had only a trivial circulation and no funds behind it. The president in those days, who was A. Graham Bell, of telephone fame, appointed as editor of the Magazine a young, untried, but not untravelled, man. Since then Dr. Grosvenor has built up the reputation and circulation of this finely illustrated journal, which is known throughout the world for the excellence of its photographic illustrations and its colour plates. After five or six precarious years, the corner was turned about 1905 and the circulation steadily grew. Dr. Grosvenor has collected photographs from every corner of the globe and articles by many eminent travellers. He has also edited a series of large-scale detailed political maps issued with the Magazine from time to time, which have a wide circulation and use, and are notable for their accuracy. The profits of this successful publication have been largely devoted to exploration and research in various lands and seas.
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National Geographic Magazine and Dr. Gilbert Grosvenor. Nature 163, 866 (1949). https://doi.org/10.1038/163866c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/163866c0