Gilbert Hovey Grosvenor was an American geographer, naturalist, writer, and editor.
Background
Grosvenor was born on October 28, 1875, in Constantinople, Ottoman Empire (now Istanbul, Turkey), the son of the Reverend Edwin Augustus Grosvenor, a professor of history at the American-sponsored Robert College in Constantinople, and Lilian Hovey Waters. The Grosvenor twins, Gilbert and Edwin, spent their childhood in Turkey. The boys absorbed an intense interest in history and archaeology from their father and even assisted him in the preparation of a two-volume history of the area. The work's numerous photographs stimulated Gilbert's interest in photography. In 1890 the Grosvenor family returned to the United States.
Education
Grosvenor attended Worcester Academy and then enrolled at Amherst College, where his father had accepted a position. They received the B. A. magna cum laude in 1897, and Gilbert began teaching languages, history, and mathematics at the Englewood (New Jersey) Academy for Boys while continuing to study at Amherst for his M. A. , which he received in 1901.
Career
In 1899, Alexander Graham Bell, the second president of the National Geographic Society, needed an editorial assistant for the National Geographic Magazine, a publication then distributed only to its membership. The Grosvenor twins attracted Bell's interest, and he offered the position to whichever of them might be interested. Gilbert accepted, and the man whose name became almost synonymous with the society and its publication began his work. Grosvenor transformed the National Geographic from a dull, dry, scholarly journal into a colorful and interesting mainstay of home and school libraries. With intuitive knowledge of the impact of fine graphics, especially photographs and maps, he unerringly picked attractive and informative visuals. National Geographic photographs, first in black and white and then in color, became the standard of excellence for generations of photographers. Grosvenor trained himself in photography, and over 400 of his pictures appeared in the magazine, including the first ever taken of the North Pole. Grosvenor ruled the National Geographic with a firm editorial hand. When advertising was finally accepted, long after it had become common in other magazines, he not only carefully segregated advertisements from content pages but refused advertising for liquor, tobacco, patent medicines, real estate, stocks, and bonds because of the educational use of the publication in schools. Though the text increasingly became an accompaniment to the fine illustrations, Grosvenor insisted on accurate, clear, and inviting writing. To that end, he developed the seven guiding principles of the National Geographic. And when Grosvenor was criticized for publishing photographs of nude primitive peoples of the world, he defended the practice as truthful. Under Grosvenor's editorship, the National Geographic grew from a dull technical journal seldom read even by the 900 members of the society to a colorful mass publication enjoyed by more than 4. 5 million households and institutions, which obtained the magazine only through membership in the society, not through newsstands or subscriptions. Grosvenor provided readers with their first look at natural color photography in 1910, underwater color photography in 1927, and full-color map supplements that not only provided some of the best general-purpose maps ever printed but were so scientifically accurate that the United States and its allies used National Geographic maps in both world wars. Perhaps even more important than the materials published in the magazine were the policies of the society itself. By 1907, Grosvenor had so increased the revenues of the society that it was possible to send teams of explorers and scientists high into the stratosphere and deep into the oceanic trenches, from pole to pole, up into the Himalayas and deep into the canyons and caverns of the earth. Much of what Americans know of the physical world and its peoples has come from such Geographic-sponsored activities. Grosvenor was elected president of the society in 1920, and no fewer than nine discoveries made in the natural or scientific world now bear his name, including mountains, lakes, rivers, islands, trails, a glacier, and a natural arch. Two birds, one in Nepal and one in New Britain, a shell from Greenland, a fish from Peru, and a drug from China also bear his name. An avid bird-lover, Grosvenor introduced the birds of the world in several series, which he collected into the two-volume Book of Birds, one of numerous publications he edited from the society's files. He retired as editor in chief and president of the society in 1954, but he continued to serve as chairman of the board of trustees until his death, in Cape Breton Island, Canada on February 4, 1966.
Achievements
Membership
President of the National Geographic Society (1920-1954)
Interests
Grosvenor led an active life in addition to his travels, for he was a tennis and golf player, a blue-water sailor, and a founder of the Cruising Club of America, which established the Bermuda Cup yacht races.
Connections
Grosvenor married Alexander Graham Bell's daughter, Elsie May Bell, on October 23, 1900. Elsie Grosvenor became known as the "first lady" of the National Geographic Society, and she accompanied her husband on his wide-ranging travels. The Grosvenors had seven children, one of whom, Melville Bell Grosvenor, became editor of the National Geographic not long after his father's retirement.