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National Geographic : 1936 Jan
Contents
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE peditions, Dr. Hugo Eckener of the Graf Zeppelin, Stefansson, Shackleton, De Pi nedo, Nobile, Dargue, Auguste Piccard, Kingsford-Smith, Ross Smith, Macready, Mittelholzer, Alan Cobham, Amelia Ear hart, Anne Morrow Lindbergh (page 160). In the files of THE GEOGRAPHIC yOU will find General Goethals' account of the building of the Panama Canal. Here, too, are the travel observations of statesmen -Taft, Theodore Roosevelt, Bryce, Coolidge, Curzon, Jusserand, Root, Grew, Bingham, Castle; of men of letters Joseph Conrad, Donn Byrne, Scott O'Con nor, A. J. Villiers; the work of famed nat uralists and scientists-Alexander Graham Bell, S. P. Langley, Ditmars, Beebe, Chap man, Coville, Morley, Shiras, Nelson, Griggs, Jaggar, Rock, Andrews, Abbot, Greely, Allen, Murphy, Mann, Wetmore. Noteworthy contributions to the under standing of our Nation both by its citizens and by members abroad are THE GEO GRAPHIC'S important series of articles on the States and chief cities of the United States. Beginning with John Oliver La Gorce's article on Pennsylvania, the series of State stories now has covered more than half of the 48 Commonwealths of the Union, and represents the most comprehensive task of its kind ever undertaken. There are many articles on islands, some remote and seldom visited. Among them are Falcon Island, a "hide and seek" spot of land in Polynesia which literally has its ups and downs; Bogoslof, another volcanic jack-in-the-box; lonely Easter Island, with its mystifying statues reared by a vanished people; Juan Fernandez, the Robinson Crusoe island; Yap and the other Pacific islands under Japanese mandate. There are also articles on islands nearer home, "The Isle of Capri," about which so much has been sung, the Channel Islands, Malta, the Orkneys, Cyprus, Guale, etc. With progress in archeological explora tion The Magazine has kept step, year by year. From Nebuchadnezzar's Palace at Baby lon, where the Hand wrote on the Wall, to the tomb of King Tutankhamen, to the ancient Harem of Xerxes at Persepolis, to Maya temples in Mexico, Inca ruins in Peru, and pueblos in our own Southwest dated by the tree-rings in their charred and weathered beams, the story of modern sci ence's steady uncovering of mysterious lost civilizations is carefully recorded. A clear, up-to-date picture of this chang ing world is brought to members from time to time by special large map supplements in color, made by The Society's own car tographers with infinite care and ingenious methods. No expense in time, money, or effort is spared to make these maps equiva lent to many volumes of reference informa tion. A million copies of each are printed. Maps are the shorthand of geography, and special processes make it possible to concentrate into those issued by The Society a maximum of material without crowding and with a clarity of lettering that has been the envy of cartographers in other parts of the world. By a specially devised technique place names are photographed onto the map instead of being printed. Paper and inks are carefully selected to insure the perfection and durability of the finished product. Sometimes the big color presses are stopped in full stride to make a change in the name or the status of an area in the light of last-minute developments on the world stage. Many a place which is of peculiar and particular interest, but too small to be shown on most maps, will be found on those of The Society. Since March, 1915, this cartographic work has been directed by Albert H. Bum stead. It was Mr. Bumstead who invented the sun-compass which Admiral Byrd used on his polar flights. "Without it," Byrd declared, "we could not have reached the Pole." Constantly The Society and The Maga zine are declaring dividends to their million member-owners in a finer, fatter publica tion, in worth-while map and pictorial sup plements, in the fruits of far-seeing, long visioned exploration in the stratosphere high above the earth, in the lower depths of the sea where no man before has gone alive, in Antarctica, "the last continent of ad venture." THE GEOGRAPHIC'S GROWTH TO A NATIONAL INSTITUTION When all this is considered, it is easy to understand why so few members resign from The Society, why membership fell off by only a small percentage during the late depression, and why the roster of members is rapidly mounting again, with the total well beyond the million mark. Instead of the tiny, one-room office shared with another scientific organization 130
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