National Geographic Magazine
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Cover of January, 1915 National Geographic |
The National Geographic Magazine, later shortened to
National Geographic, is the official journal of the
National Geographic Society. It published its first issue nine months after the Society was founded. It has become one of the world's best-known
magazines and is immediately identifiable by the characteristic yellow border running around the edge of its cover.
There are 12 monthly issues of
National Geographic per year, plus additional map supplements. On rare occasions, special editions are also issued. It contains articles about geography, popular science, world history, current events and photography. The current Editor-in-Chief of National Geographic Magazine is the famed wildlife photographer,
Chris Johns.
In later years the once-benign articles became outspoken on issues such as environment, deforestation, global warming, and endangered species. Series of articles were included focusing on the history of specific products such as a single metal, gem, food crop, or agricultural product, or an archeological discovery. Occasionally an entire month's issue would be devoted to a single country, past civilization, natural resource, or other theme. Also in recent decades, the National Geographic Society unveiled alternative magazines with different focuses (described in Wikipedia article on "National Geographic Society").
During the
Cold War, the magazine committed itself to presenting a balanced view of the physical and human geography of nations beyond the
Iron Curtain. The magazine printed articles on
Berlin,
de-occupied Austria, the
Soviet Union, and Communist
China that deliberately downplayed politics to focus on culture. In its coverage of the
Space Race,
National Geographic focused on the scientific achievement while largely avoiding reference to the race's connection to nuclear arms buildup.
In addition to being well-known for articles about scenery, history, and the most distant corners of the world; the magazine has also long been recognized for its book-like quality and its standard of
photography. This standard makes it the home to some of the highest-quality
photojournalism in the world. The magazine began to feature
color photography in the early
20th century, when this technology was still rare. During the 1930s,
Luis Marden (1913-2003), a writer and photographer for
National Geographic, convinced the magazine to allow its photographers to use small 35mm cameras loaded with
Kodachrome film over bulkier cameras with
tripods and
glass plates. In
1959, the magazine started publishing photographs on its covers. In subsequent years, the magazine cover, while keeping its yellow border, shed its oak leaf trim and bare table of contents, for a large photograph taken from one of the month's articles inside. National Geographic, more than most other magazines, was often prized and kept by subscribers for years, and sometimes re-sold at thrift stores.
Supplementing the articles, the magazine sometimes provides
maps of the regions visited. The Society's map archives have been used by the United States government in instances where its own
cartographic resources were limited. In 2001, National Geographic released an eight-
CD-ROM set containing all its maps from 1888 to December 2000.
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Sharbat Gula as seen in the photo used for the 1985 issue of National Geographic |
One cover photo in
1985 was of an
Afghan refugee, a young girl with
green eyes. After the
US-led invasion of Afghanistan a search was conducted for the girl. She was identified in
2002 as
Sharbat Gula, a
Pashtun. Her story was told in the
April 2002 issue of
National Geographic and in a National Geographic television documentary. A fund named after Gula was created and originally funded by the Society and contributed to by thousands of readers which resulted in a partnership between National Geographic and the Asia Foundation in the creation of a girls' school in Afghanistan that taught hundreds of teenage girls with both a vocational and basic education, in addition to a hot meal and health care. The funds also contributed to the construction of a public school for girls in Kabul.
In
1995,
National Geographic began publishing in
Japanese, its first local language edition. The magazine is now published in thirty-one (31) different language editions around the world, including: English on a worldwide basis,
Bulgarian,
traditional character Chinese,
Croatian,
Czech,
Danish,
Dutch,
Finnish,
French,
German,
Greek,
Hebrew,
Hungarian,
Indonesian,
Italian,
Japanese,
Korean,
Norwegian,
Polish,
Portuguese,
Romanian,
Russian,
Slovenian,
Spanish,
Swedish, and
Turkish.
In April 2005, an
Indonesian edition launched, published by Gramedia Majalah - Jakarta. A
Bulgarian edition of the magazine launched in November, 2005 and a Slovenian edition launched in May, 2006. Pending approval by the government of China for publishing National Geographic in simplified Chinese, National Geographic publishes in association with Trends Publications in Beijing a magazine called "Global Geography."
In contrast to the
United States, where membership in the National Geographic Society was until recently the only way to receive the magazine, the worldwide editions are sold on newsstands in addiiton to regular subscriptions. In several countries, such as Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, and Turkey, National Geographic paved the way for a subscription model in addition to traditional newsstand sales.
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National Geographic online
