X-Nico

50 unusual facts about National Geographic Society


Art Cooley

Jonathan Cooley, Art's son from his previous marriage, is a paleontologist and expedition leader for National Geographic, as well as for family programs and camps.

Arundu

Arundu ("Arandu") was famously misplaced on the National Geographic Society's hurried December 2001 wall-sized "Afghanistan and Pakistan" map just within Afghanistan, a rare sovereignty error for that organization's maps.

Bailey Ruin

Emil W. Haury visited the site in 1927 and 1929, first for the Gila Pueblo Archaeological Foundation and then for the National Geographic Society Third Beam Expedition.

Ballad of the Irish Horse

The album serves as the soundtrack for a National Geographic documentary, The Ballad of the Irish Horse, which documented the history and tradition of horses in Ireland.

Battle of Blackett Strait

In what National Geographic called a "poorly planned and badly coordinated" attack, 15 boats with 60 available torpedoes went into action.

Biuku Gasa and Eroni Kumana

Gasa and Kumana were interviewed by National Geographic in 2002, and can be seen on the DVD of the television special.

Bras d'Or Lake

It is because of Bell's connection to this area that Beinn Bhreagh and Baddeck are routinely featured on National Geographic maps showing eastern North America.

Bricklayer’s Arms, Putney

In 2012, National Geographic rated the Bricklayer’s Arms, a "compact Victorian gem", the third best pub in England.

Broghol

According to the National Geographic Genographic Project, Broghol Pass appears to be the route used by the ancestors of all modern Western Europeans to reach Europe.

Brood XIX

The National Geographic Society is gathering reports from the public about the geographical distribution of Brood XIX as part of a larger project to remap the distribution of Magicicada.

California Gull

National Geographic Society (2002): Field Guide to the Birds of North America.

Carhuasanta

The National Geographic Society sent a three-man expedition to the region in 1971, headed by Loren McIntyre.

Casuarina Prison

The prison featured in the documentary, Australia's Hardest Prison: Lockdown Oz on the National Geographic channel in 2008, following the lives of prisoners and officers.

Chiemsee Cauldron

In an interview with National Geographic, jeweler Maximillian Heiden opined that Gahr would have been the obvious choice of the Nazi Party for such a project.

Common English Bible

The maps of biblical lands in the Common English Bible are produced by the National Geographic Society.

CZ12

JC visits a man named Professor Guan, who had created 12 identical replicas for study purposes with his team of researchers, under the pretense that he is a reporter named Martin from National Geographic.

Dallol, Ethiopia

Dallol became more known in the West in 2004 when it was featured in the Channel 4/National Geographic documentary Going to Extremes.

Deirdre Hyde

Her work is also included in collections such as that of the Duke of Edinburgh, the Smithsonian Institution, National Geographic Society, and Canning House as well as private and public collections worldwide.

Enduring Voices

Launched in 2007 by the joint effort of the Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages and the National Geographic Society, it has organized expeditions to language "hotspots" around the world, e.g. to Australia, Bolivia, East India.

Feast of St. Anthony

National Geographic christened St. Anthony’s feast as “The feast of all feasts”.

Flame jet drill

The devices were featured in a National Geographic documentary "MegaStructures: Deep Earth Drillers" about geothermal energy.

Garinger High School

Garinger was even featured in a 1962 edition of National Geographic as Charlotte-Mecklenburg's showplace high school.

Garonne

Despite the lack of universal agreement upon definition for determining a stream's source, the United States Geological Survey, the National Geographic Society, and the Smithsonian Institution agree that a stream's source should be considered as the most distant point (along watercourses from the river mouth) in the drainage basin from which water runs.

Gustavus Fox

Little attention was paid to his paper until 1986, when the National Geographic Society also concluded that Samana Cay was San Salvador.

Herman Lee Meader

Meader was a member of the Harvard Club, the Strollers Club, the Astor Masonic Lodge, the National Geographic Society and the New York Southern Society.

Herodium

Herod's Lost Tomb (2008; National Geographic Society), in addition to examining Netzer's purported find of Herod's tomb, the palace and most of Herod's other large projects are reconstructed in CGI.

Inov-8

2008 - Won National Geographic Adventure Gear of the Year Award for Roclite 370

J. Michael Fay

Both projects were sponsored by the National Geographic Society, which produced articles and documentaries about the projects.

He has worked for the Wildlife Conservation Society since 1990, and was an Explorer in Residence at the National Geographic Society.

Jackson County, Alabama

Russell Cave is an important archaeological site that was excavated in 1956 by the Smithsonian Institution and the National Geographic Society.

James Plaskett

He also organised and led a 1999 National Geographic expedition to Bermuda to follow up reports of "Octopus giganteus" near the island, but was unsuccessful in filming it.

John Varty

In 2011, National Geographic made a second documentary called Tiger Man of Africa.

Joris Putman

He has developed his own programme for young people "Green Dream District" about new sustainable inventions which will show on "National Geographic" Youth from January 2009.

Joseph Lekuton

His book Facing the Lion: Growing Up Maasai in the African Savanna was published by the National Geographic.

Julia Kapatelis

At one point Julia was presented with a grant by the National Geographic Society to locate the original city of Themyscira in the country of Turkey.

Kamaljit S. Bawa

He also serves on the Committee for Research and Exploration of the National Geographic Society.

Lockwood Aircam

Designed by Phil Lockwood, founder of Lockwood Aircraft, it was built for the National Geographic Society for research and photography in the Ndoki Rain Forest in the northern Congo Basin.

Lucy Jane Bledsoe

Besides writing, Bledsoe is a CD-ROM script writer for National Geographic and several other educational organizations, e.g. George Lucas Educational Foundation.

Marden House

Also known as "Fontinalis," it is named after Luis Marden (1913-2003), a writer, photographer, and explorer for National Geographic.

Mashkan-shapir

The site was excavated for a total of five months in three seasons between 1987 and 1990 by an American Schools of Oriental Research and National Geographic Society team led by Elizabeth Stone and Paul Zimansky.

Mêdog County

A modern journey by Ian Baker and his National Geographic-sponsored team to Pemakö received book-length treatment in his 1994 The Heart of the World.

Mercy Murugi

She has worked with National Geographic, Discovery Channel, BBC, amongst other global production houses and TV channels.

National Geographic

National Geographic Society, an American non-profit scientific and educational institution

National Geographic Animal Jam

National Geographic Animal Jam is a massively multiplayer online game launched in 2010 by Smart Bomb Interactive, in partnership with the National Geographic Society.

Northeast Kingdom

In 2006, the National Geographic Society named the Northeast Kingdom as the most desirable place to visit in the country and the ninth most desirable place to visit in the world.

Poonjar

Raghubir Singh, the famed National Geographic photographer, has published photographs of this temple, nestled in the foothills of the high ranges of Kerala, in National Geographic.

Radio Expeditions

The Radio Expeditions series is a joint production of National Public Radio and the National Geographic Society.

Rick Ray

He has been a guest lecturer at hundreds of universities and has made seven appearances at the National Geographic Society in Washington D.C.

Utah State Route 128

The highway follows the southern bank of the Colorado River through a narrow, steep gorge, described as spectacular by National Geographic.

Wally Herbert

He was commissioned by the National Geographic Society, which had supported Peary's claim, to write an assessment of Peary's 1909 diary and astronomical observations.


Archaeogenetics of the Near East

It was reported in the PBS description of the National Geographic TV Special on this study entitled "Quest for the Phoenicians" that ancient DNA was included in this study as extracted from the tooth of a 2500 year-old Phoenician mummy.

Boyd Estus

In addition to making films for the BBC and other overseas broadcasters, Estus has made many films for American broadcast television including the National Geographic Society, the Smithsonian Institution, the History Channel, the Discovery Channel, and PBS television where he was a founding member of the film unit at WGBH Boston.

Carl Boenish

Boenish's cinematography work included the 1969 John Frankenheimer parachuting film classic The Gypsy Moths, starring Burt Lancaster and Gene Hackman, and a National Geographic Explorer segment on jumps from El Capitan.

Field guide

Specialist publishers such as Croom Helm, along with organisations like the Audubon Society, the RSPB, the Field Studies Council, National Geographic, HarperCollins, and many others all produce quality field guides.

Gardiner Greene Hubbard

In 1890, Mount Hubbard on the Alaska-Yukon border was named in his honour by an expedition co-sponsored by the National Geographic Society while he was president.

Ila Loetscher

Loetscher appeared in National Geographic documentaries and on numerous television shows, including the The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, Late Night with David Letterman, the Today Show, and Real People.

James Henry Darlington

He was a member of the General Society of Colonial Wars, the Sons of the Revolution, Saint Nicholas Society in the City of New York, The Huguenot Society of America, Society of the Cincinnati, National Geographic and other societies, and of the University Club of Brooklyn, New York, and the Westminster Club of England.

Lois H. Gresh

They have been reviewed in the New York Times Book Review, USA Today, Entertainment Weekly, Science News, National Geographic, Physics Today, New Scientist, and US News and World Report, as well as by National Public Radio, the BBC, Fox News, the History Channel, and other television and radio programs.

Mount Bumstead

It was discovered by R. Admiral Byrd on the Byrd Antarctic Expedition flight to the South Pole in November 1929 and named by him for Albert H. Bumstead, chief cartographer of the National Geographic Society at that time, and inventor of the sun compass, a device utilizing shadows of the sun to determine directions in areas where magnetic compasses are unreliable.

MOWA Band of Choctaw Indians

In 2007, Wilford Taylor, the Chief of the MOWA Choctaw Indians, agreed to participate in a DNA autosomal test that would map his genes, as part of the Genographic Project administered by the National Geographic Society.

North Bethesda, Maryland

The far southern edge of the North Bethesda CDP was originally the country estate of the Grosvenor family, whose lineage includes Alexander Graham Bell and a former President of the National Geographic Society.

Paul X. Kelley

He is the recipient of the National Geographic Society’s Major General O.A. Anderson Award, the Veterans of Foreign Wars’ National Armed Forces Award, the American Academy of Achievement’s Golden Plate Award, the Navy League’s Admiral John M. Will Award, the Ireland Fund’s Irishman of the Year for Southern California Award, the Reserve Officers Association’s Minuteman Hall of Fame Award, and the Marine Corps Scholarship Fund’s Semper Fidelis Award.

William Alexander Linn

He is a member of the National Geographic Society, the New Jersey Historical Society, Bergen County Historical Society, and trustee of the Johnson Public Library of Hackensack.