National Geographic Society

[htmb]

When I was a child we lived a block away from my maternal grandparents and my mother took me to visit on a regular basis. My grandfather was in good health until well into his mid-nineties, but though my grandmother's mind was sharp, her body deteriorated fairly rapidly due to two broken hip incidents and horrible arthritis. My grandparent's home was not suited for children and there wasn't much to do, but my mother always took me, and not my brother, because I would absorb myself with finding the perfect book in their library.

Books were very important to my grandparents and my favorite room in their house was lined with built-in, floor to ceiling shelves. Both grandparents spent a lot of time reading in their library, and it eventually became my grandmother's bedroom once she could no longer climb the stairs to the second floor. At 89, my grandmother died in that room.

But, backing up several years, some of my earliest memories are going into the library, picking out a book, and reading quietly until it was time to go home. A couple of hours always seemed to fly by during those visits. My grandfather had a set of encylopedias from the 1920's that I absolutely loved and spent many hours reading the articles and looking up items and events to see that yes, indeed, they weren't included in the books. The U.S Civil War and the Great War were there, but nothing about World War II. Scotch tape wasn't listed under any form of name. It hadn't been invented!

Though I spent many hours with those Comptens, even better were the countless volumes of National Geographic. They filled a good part of one wall and each article further opened I world of possibilities.

So, when I found myself spending time in the neighborhood of the National Geographic Society offices in Washington, DC, I decided I really should visit their museum. Though it's very small and a bit overpriced, the museum was interesting and I was glad I made an effort to visit.



I had forgotten the covers didn't used to have photos until I saw this first display. These panels are pictures of the magazines on back-lit glass.

[bixaorellana]

What a lovely reminiscence, Htmb. Probably all of us here who learned to love reading as children suppressed a little sigh of envy at your access to that lovely library.

Can't wait to see what else is inside the museum!

[Deleted]

One thing that always seemed incredible to me as a child was that our elders (such as my American grandmother) had collections of this magazine which was not sold on newsstands back then. Without the internet or other easy ways to know anything about it, I always wondered how they got them.

When I grew up, I realized that they always had very effective mail campaigns to recruit subscribers.

[bjd]

In my in-laws house in the French countryside, there are tons of old issues of the National Geographic. They subscribed when they lived in Sweden, and moved them all when they came to France. I always liked looking at the old issues, although they were more recent than the ones in htmb's picture, since there were photographs on the covers.

I also had a subscription for my kids for about 20 years, but finally stopped -- lack of space and less geography and more science/Americana put me off. I can't imagine taking them if and when we move though.

[htmb]

Back in those days people also purchased things from door-to-door salesmen (always men). There was the Fuller Brush salesman, the vacuum cleaner salesman, magazine salesman, and even the "take a photo of your kid on a pony" salesman. Today, I wouldn't open my door to a salesman or solicitor, much less make a purchase, but a lot of folks did back then.

When I turned ten my grandmother gave me my own National Geographic subscription which I continued to get until I went off to college. My parents later gifted my children with a subscription and I remember being horrified that they wanted to cut photos out of the magazines to use for school poster reports.


Here are a couple of shots of the walls of photo-covered editions.







Inside, there were photo displays of people and various events covered in the magazine's history, such as this section featuring Jacques Cousteau, Robert Ballard, and other undersea explorers.










I wasn't quite sure of this huge globe was supposed to be interactive, but it rotated.




This screen with photos of a giant sequoia was pretty cool. By pushing a button, the screen would zoom to a particular area on the tree and thoroughly describe what one would see, how the tree was growing out and no longer up, what protected it from lightening strikes, and the various creatures living in the tree at certain points.

[htmb]

Looking at the old cameras and equipment was pretty interesting.




A few maps were featured; relics from the days of map inserts, but I wasn't able to take very satisfactory photos.




I really like this quote.



















The blue and white screen seen on the right side of the last photograph was actually from a looping video displaying filmed events and stories. There was also a large theatre where daily National Geographic films were shown and where lectures are given periodically.

As I said earlier, this was a very small museum. It's housed in two fairly large buildings filled with the offices of the National Geographic Society worker bees. Of course, I didn't photograph all the displays, but other than a feature about space exploration which was not photo worthy, and a very large gift shop, that's all there was for a visitor to see. Still, it was a nice walk down memory lane.

[htmb]

Here's a YouTube copy of the film showing on the wall in the National Geographic Museum's last room:

National Geographic Museum

[bixaorellana]

Super report, Htmb. National Geographic was probably a huge influence on kids around the world. In the memoir, A House in the Sky, the author's lifelong impulse to travel to remote places is attributed to her fascination with National Geographic magazines. Interesting that you brought up the Comptons, as I think in most homes with subscriptions to Natl Geo the magazines were treated as a sort of adjunct to the family set of encyclopedias.

[htmb]

Thank you for your kind words, Bixa. Yes, I would imagine that was the case in my grandparents' home. I'm assuming my grandfather was the one who read most of the NG and the Comptons. He traveled a good bit, and even visited Australia (quite unusual for his peer group) several times before he reached his mid-eighties.

[Deleted]

I was just thinking that a lot of us are all in the same situation as our parents and (sometimes) grandparents. We all subscribed to National Geographic and kept every issue as a precious heirloom. And then after about 10 years, you realize that it is impossible to keep collecting them forever and you don't renew the subscription. I must confess that I also had the same problem with Geo.

[bjd]

My collection of National Geographic magazines is complete for all those years except for one issue! I lent it to my children's Lebanese dentist because there was a special article about Beirut and she never gave it back.

I never bought many Geo -- an occasional one if there was really something I was interested in, but I have thrown them all away.

[Deleted]

That's because you never subscribed. It becomes just as untossable as National Geographic as the issues pile up. And I was also a victim of Grands Reportages for several years. (I don't think that even exists anymore.)

[tod2]

Very interesting Htmb! What a wonderful museum.
I think I have several cartons of NG - all brought over from my mothers house when she sold. If you tell me exactly which issue you are missing Bjd, I will see if I have it. It's yours if you would like it.

[bjd]

That's really sweet of you, Tod, but don't bother. That would just be one more magazine I would have to decide what to do with when we move. (No plans to do so right now but I am trying to look ahead.)