“In Washington we’d been watching parade after parade with notables.and the flags were so complicated.the bystander from the sidewalk couldn’t tell what it was. Editor Gilbert Hovey Grosvenor and his wife, Elsie May Bell Grosvenor (daughter of Alexander Graham Bell), had studied the many flags found around Washington and thought most were too cryptic to be easily identified from a distance. The Board of Managers determined that the Society needed its own flag. In 1903 the Society, then 15 years old, finally had a stable financial base and growing membership. In addition to flying high at headquarters in Washington, D.C., Society flags have been carried on innumerable expeditions to the far-flung reaches of the globe and beyond. The flag of the National Geographic Society has been a symbol of adventure and discovery for most of this century. Bell Rogers Birnie William Dall Arthur Powell Davis Clarence Dutton Henry Gannett Samuel Gannett Grove Karl Gilbert George Brown Goode James Howard Gore Adolphus Washington Greely Edward Everett Hayden Henry Wetherbee Henshaw Gardiner Greene Hubbard Willard Drake Johnson George Kennan George Wallace Melville Clinton Hart Merriam Henry Mitchell Robert Muldrow II Herbert Gouverneur Ogden John Wesley Powell William Bramwell Powell Israel Russell Winfield Scott Schley Almon Harris Thompson Gilbert Thompson Otto Hilgard Tittmann James Clarke Wellingįlag of the Society, representing Land, Sea, and Sky:Ībout the creation of the Society's flag: Cleveland Abbe Frank Baker Marcus Baker John Russell Bartlett Charles J.NatGeo's Twitter celebrates 131 years (shows neat handwritten image)Īt the Cosmos Club in Washington, D.C., on Janu~ the 32 Founders with, and convened by, Gardiner Greene Hubbard, eminent scientist and 1st President of N.G.S.

I was unable, over a week ago, to announce & wish the National Geographic Society a happy 135th anniversary!

Gilbert hovey grosvenor