Page images
PDF
EPUB

THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY

its Magazine with the best things that travel, research, and exploration could bring, and it found the people eager for the knowledge those pages brought them. From that day to this there has been growth, growth, growth-growth that is expressed in the Society's new home, growth that is disclosed in the remarkable contents of the Magazine, growth that is emphasized by the fact that today the National Geographic Society is the largest and most popular scientific society in the world, and its Magazine the most widely circulated non-fiction magazine on earth.

The Society has no endowments; its endowment is the remarkable interest that the Magazine has stimulated throughout the world and the wonderful support it commands. With no other dividends to pay than the dividends of information it carries to its readers, the income derived from the Magazine can be put back into it and into the explorations and research work of the Society.

HUBBARD MEMORIAL HALL

Until 1902 the National Geographic Society was without a home of its own, but that year the heirs of the Hon. Gardiner Greene Hubbard built Hubbard Memorial Hall as a home for the Society and as a memorial for its first President. It looked as if they had discounted the future liberally and had anticipated the day of the greatest growth to which the Society could hope to attain. They little reckoned that within a single decade the rising tide of geographic interest would sweep into the Society a membership such as no other scientific society in the world has enjoyed; that before the ear-marks of newness were off the walls, the Society's management would have to be working and planning for more space.

Long before ten short years had passed Hubbard Memorial Hall was full and overflowing, and two branch offices had to be established in rented quarters. Soon the Board of Managers saw that it was only a question of two or three years until its own quarters would demand enlargement, and made provision for that. day by acquiring the land adjoining the Hubbard Memorial Hall, a fine plat of

457

ground 90 by 100 feet; they also began gradually to accumulate a building fund out of the receipts of the Society's busi

ness.

The work on the new building, which was designed by Architect Arthur B. Heaton, was begun on March 27, 1913; and, owing to the energy and faithfulness of the contractors, the George A. Fuller Construction Co., was completed in less than seven months. The results of that work are graphically told by the pictures and by the following letter, written by Mr. E. Z. Blagg, vice-president and general manager of the Globe-Wernicke Company, who was in charge of the erection of the new plant of that company, the largest woodworking plant in the world. He says:

A REAL "MODEL PLANT"

"I wish to extend my heartiest congratulations to the National Geographic Society, of which I am proud to be a member, on the completion of its new home. Before the erection of our new building in Cincinnati I made many trips. to so-called 'model' plants throughout the country in search of ideas, and I want to say that I have yet to see a large office force more admirably housed than that of the Society.

"I was particularly impressed with the foresight of those who planned the building, in the matter of utilizing the natural light and providing for the last word in hygienic surroundings. There is not a dark corner in the building, and the ventilation system is perfect.

"That the present and future requirements of the Society were kept clearly in mind while the building was being planned is shown by the wonderful facilities throughout for the expeditious handling of the Society's business, particularly that pertaining to the issuance of the NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE. Your equipment for taking care of incoming mail is the most complete I have ever seen, and nothing has been left undone to expedite the work of each department.

“One feature of your system in particular impressed itself upon my mind as a model for all business concerns I

[ocr errors]
[blocks in formation]

The first meeting of Robert E. Peary, discoverer of the North Pole (4), and Roald Amundsen, discoverer of the South Pole (3), at the home of the National
Geographic Society, January 11. 1913. The other members in the group include J. J. Jusserand, the French Ambassador (2); Viscount Bryce, then Ambassador from
Great Britain (5); George W. Wickersham, at that time the Attorney General (13); the Minister from Norway (14); Hiram Bingham, leader of the Yale-National Geo-
graphic Society Expedition to Peru (16). Officers and Board of Managers of the National Geographic Society: President, Henry Gannett (1); Col. Henry F. Blount (6);
Dr. Alexander Graham Bell (7); Mr. John Joy Edson, Treasurer (8); Rear Admiral John E. Pillsbury (9); Gilbert H. Grosvenor, Director and Editor National Geographic
Society (19); George Otis Smith, Director U. S. Geological Survey (11); Rear Admiral C. M. Chester (12); O. H. Tittmann, Vice-President, and Supt. U. S. Coast and
Geodetic Survey (22); L. A. Bauer, Director Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, Carnegie Institution (15); Franklin K. Lane, now Secretary of the Interior (18);
Rudolph Kauffmann, Managing Editor, Washington Evening Star (20); Brigadier General John M. Wilson, former Chief of Engineers, U. S. A. (21); C. Hart Merriam
(29); Charles J. Bell, President American Security and Trust Co. (23); David Fairchild, Agricultural Explorer (24); George Shiras, 3d, former member of Congress and
wild-game photographer (25); John Oliver La Gorce, Associate Editor, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE (26); George R. Putnam, U. S. Commissioner of Lighthouses (27);
Frederick B. Eichelberger, Assistant Treasurer, National Geographic Society (28); Frederick V. Coville, President Washington Academy of Sciences (31); Dr. S. N. 1).
North (32); T. I Macdonald, M. D. (33); Edwin P. Grosvenor, Special Assistant to the Attorney General, member of firm of Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft (30) Peter
Stuyvesant Pillot (17), and Julien A. Ripley (19), of New York,

[graphic]

THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY

mean that your business for each day is complete in itself, and a trial balance struck before that day's books are closed. The prompt service received by your members through this system is an important factor in the wonderful growth the Society has enjoyed.

"Your new building adjoining Hubbard Memorial Hall will be a standing monument to represent the good work carried on by the Society."

The style of architecture of the new building is Italian Renaissance, and the material white brick, trimmed with white limestone, making it harmonize in every detail with the Hubbard Memorial Hall, with which it is connected by passages in the basement and in the first two stories. The hallway is paved with white and green marble, while the walls are of rich but plain Italian Batticino marble, which gives a pleasing effect to the eye. The first floor is the only one that covers the entire space of the lot; in the upper stories one-third of the space is occupied by a 20-foot air shaft, inclosed on only three sides. The result is that there is not a dark corner in the entire building, making it lighter on dark days than most modern office buildings are when the sun is shining.

THE SEVERAL DEPARTMENTS

The first floor of the new building is devoted to the reception offices, the office of the Assistant Secretary, and the addressing and mailing rooms. The second floor is occupied by the correspondence department, which receives and answers upward of a thousand letters on the average day. The third floor is devoted to the editorial department.

The office of the Director and Editor consists of two rooms, paneled from top to bottom in dark cypress, with an ornamental beamed ceiling. Next to these is the office of the Associate Editor, paneled throughout with Georgia pine. The general editorial room is a spacious one, with perhaps 350 square feet of window space. In this room is the large fireproof vault used for storing the thousands of photographs which have come from all parts of the world, constituting what probably

459

is the greatest collection of geographic pictures to be found anywhere. On the fourth floor the accounting department has its quarters. The remainder of that floor is taken up by the kitchen and employees' dining-room.

With the new building occupied by the business and editorial activities of the Society, it is now possible to devote Hubbard Memorial Hall to its scientific activities. The rooms on the ground floor of this building are used for the meetings. of the Board of Managers, the Research Committee, and such other committees of the Society as have occasion to meet for conference. The upper story is given over to the library and an exhibition hall. The library has been renovated and its small but valuable collection of books recatalogued and rearranged.

THE SOCIETY'S WORK

The Society encourages exploration and geographic research by means of such financial grants as its resources will permit. In cooperation with Yale University, it has recently maintained a large expedition in Peru, making geographical, geological, and archeological investigations around Cuzco, in a region which is generally believed to have been the birthplace of the famous and little-known Inca race. It also had an expedition in Alaska investigating the recent eruption of Mt. Katmai, this study being preliminary to a comprehensive investigation of what is perhaps the most stupendous volcanic belt on the earth. The Society has just concluded a series of investigations, extending over three years, of the glaciers of Alaska, one of the most important fields of geographical research in America.

Its earlier expeditions to Alaska did much pioneer work in the exploration of that territory. In 1902 the Society sent an expedition to Mount Pelée and La Soufrière to study the terrible eruptions of these volcanoes. The Society has assisted various Arctic expeditions, notably the last expedition of Robert E. Peary, which discovered the North Pole, April 6, 1909. In 1909 it sent to Sicily a trained geologist to investigate the Messina earthquake. A popular account of

THE PRIVATE OFFICE OF GILBERT H. GROSVENOR, THE EDITOR OF THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE AND THE DIRECTOR OF THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY

Mr. Grosvenor's beautiful office is paneled in cypress, with rafter ceiling, and finished in soft brown tones throughout. The room is quite a contrast to the quarters occupied by the Society when Mr. Grosvenor was appointed, April, 1899, to develop the Magazine and Society. At that time, 15 years ago, the National Geographic Society shared a small room, 10 x 14 feet, with another scientific organization, and had not sufficient income, with its membership of 900, to provide him with clerical assistance. Then the Editor could carry the entire edition of one month on his back; today one month's edition makes a pile two miles high, and the ink used for printing a single issue is more than ten men can carry.

[graphic]
[graphic]

OFFICE OF JOHN OLIVER LA GORCE, THE ASSOCIATE EDITOR

This office, which adjoins that of the Editor, is paneled and raftered in Georgia pine, showing the natural grain

« PreviousContinue »