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1674-1 John LaGorce • 7.7.77777' . f 4 y .-s�<sR ?r ''.k•c% v kvrta -----7"...7-77T e t7r 'it "'Tr -...',:-',.;/...'''.4',.,." 4 f *kg.. a {sr Se " s sc ,'r ti `F sr k`x - . THENI :� -.,„,...„,-,:1-J.,1-::-*- . 0 .�A...,+ T 't" J VI r .yk r rjSOCIETY �� • ' - ..! �_ x • • t . .• : -r.e� .1.4V;rtt .^`',: ,F":,:!::404,....,,,1:.:•::...,01g r , J., tic`.r: sz `'` � k ' •t•1 1•� t . r. `� e �'n _. � fi , Ar 'f ADVENTURE w r AND _�. =T' : DISCOVERY C.D B. BRYAN • -:,t41,,4; '.•...k. . r.. . , -, ,. ..... _ _ ,. ..... . . .T.:.-_, ....N • • • • • ?• -,• '•• 4-,...-.... ,_...z.,.....,• - ' \..�j�/ • +•'� a ----i!,. ;-........'......,. ..,..:-,,,--,.--..:-._.--r --~ S�`-�' `�"' K . T : :i.,, ,•... a-sr byss T.• l *k•' ti -• ) atr jil ' 0101 ,qt +'' .4 .Shcr -�J ' *. - ' k,/ ' r • .Ze;. yferry/4 ~rV ;•l fi ,:s a, j A. rz n r fir' a•✓, .;,Fri / HARRY N.ABRAMS,INC.,PUBLISHERS,NEW YORK 1 4. . • • • �,.t , . .+ • • tom•• 1114. 'PI. .• , A . y ; l� ,c ; �`16.t .., •1• ~ TN: - .. a ' ��h � t • ,:'sr* :.a - ., Vit:. . j .,mow. ± • r, yl-r,a.-? � -.� �� M,. 'F • ` meati • ': _'Is,-: 11 ' : �,�.,.. 'f"'' _ • � x •r!Rd . 4 • • r. • Page 1: Lightning dances Editor:Edith M.Pavese r across the mountains behind Tucson,Arizona. Art Director:Samuel N.Antupit Pages 2-3:African elephants find drink and sanctuary in ' Namibia's Etosha National Park. Pages 4-5:The gaping crater of Washington State's Mount St. Helens a year after the May 18, 1980,eruption. Pages 6-7:The face behind the Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data • mask of an Asaro Valley,Pa- Bryan,C.D.B.(Courtlandt Dixon Barnes( pua New Guinea"Mudman." The National Geographic Society. Pages 8-9:A frog-eating bat Bibliography:p. 0 swoops down at a poisonous toad. Includes index. 1.National Geographic Society(U.S.) I.Title. Pages 10-11: Afghan horse- G3.N37B79 1987 910'.6 87-1397 men play the national sport, ISBN 0-8109-1376-3 (i* buz kashi,a wild version of polo. Copyright©1987 The National Geographic Society !'ages 12-13:The roof of the Published in 1987 by Harry N.Abrams,Incorporated, world: the Himalayas in New York.All rights reserved.No part of the Nepal. contents of this book may be reproduced without This page:Four large mullet the written permission of the publisher in Japan's Izu Oceanic Park. Overleaf:The Great Pyra- Times Mirror Books mids at Giza,Egypt. Printed and bound in the United States of America i i _� r 3n;; :. In his acce tance s ewe Dr.La Gorce said "Gentlemen with our c•.: !i z,> 5r ��S�'t t ti P P Y "' . rz r ! � timed help I shall do my best to carry forward the high standards of the + +} ,' i '; }";i' cational and scientific work of the National Geographic Society and i " r" ,.1 `'.:=7,4', '-` Magazine." Little more than a year later La Gorce was one of five journalise '1.2:',...-'1''..f..4 ,, and editors from the Western Hemisphere to receive an award from Columb' '. 4 4 1; v j,'; ` University for furthering friendship between the peoples of the Americas. �I• � ; y,i if i e For nearly fifty years La Gorce, formerly an expert press telegrapher . } 1 ,,,.: - �,,, one of the Society's original three employees,had worked in the shadow of I l�I' :'. / fr mentor, Gilbert H. Grosvenor. A courtly, six-foot-tall, seventy-five-year ' ', r y f4 with an erect military bearing, "JOL"—as he was referred to in the office, i• 1r f _ .:' Of, thoughhe referred to himself as Grosvenor's"man Friday"—was handicap. `' • '' ,-,i1)4„ , , ag ' bya tter which miraculouslydisappeared i '� when he made a public addr:: �,.,iii-lcit.&k. i1/44": f, QAlthough advertising and promotion were his chief responsibilities, ►' -A.. Gorce occasionally wrote articles for the Magazine—fishing and sea life .. ti ,variii. , i f his favorite subjects—and he edited the Society's 1952 Book of Fishes. l' ' "=g, ° ( i Gilbert Grosvenor was not the only Society officer to have had land ry i f tures named after him; La Gorce had had a mountain range and a peak . �;� after him in Antarctica and a meteorological station, too. There was,in . I tion, a Mount La Gorce, La Gorce Lake and La Gorce Glacier in Alaska, .. /,' land and a country club and golf course in Miami Beach,Florida,and La I ' ,1 !;, Arch, a rock formation along the Escalante River in Utah. ' i oN,.., Visitors to La Gorce's pine-paneled third-floor office would remar. "\" S. ..f. how dark it was, how it was dominated by La Gorce's weapons collectis.' The Geographic editors'attempts to which included a thirteenth-century Crusader's sword, a Stone Age axe.. appease what they perceived as the World War Two commando dagger. membership's unquenchable thirst for La Gorce was a man of simple loyalties—and appalling prejudices. colorful scenes resulted in photogra- Gilbert H. Grosvenor's loyalties were to the membership of the Soc.- phers being sent to cover festivals such John Oliver La Gorce's correspondence reveals, as in this telegram se as the one Jamestown, Virginia,cele- brated in 1957 marking the 350th GHG on September 21, 1921, that his loyalties were to Gilbert Grosvenor 1 anniversary of its founding(shown of all: above). SIXTEEN YEARS AGO TODAY WAS THE MOST FORTUNATE AND HAPPY MILE- . STONE OF MY LIFE WHEN I JOINED UP WITH YOU THE BEST LEADER AND FRIEND I A MAN COULD HAVE. J0LAGORCE Second, his loyalties were to the Society to which he had devoted i fifty years;and third,his loyalties were to the membership(so long as it attempt to interfere with that "nonprofit scientific and educational ins' tion's" business of increasing and diffusing geographic knowledge). A handwritten memorandum from La Gorce to Gilbert H. Grosvenor pr../ an insight into JOL's attitude toward those members who dared critic' j Magazine's "nude"pictures: 1 GHG: In considering the letters received now and then from people 1 believe it their mission on earth to save man from himself and in spite s i himself—in the use of tobacco for example—let us not forget that we get , 1 many letters telling us that the Geographic is corrupting the morals of' cent people by publishing so many pictures of nude women.Naturally , I is entitled to his own opinion but should the mock modesty of 1/1000 of percent of geographic readers upset the educational work of the book ' not why should the same percentage of hopeless asses force tobacco frci, our ad pages.I know how broad you are but I want to get a line through u the subject. 1; JOL , 1 II 298 , 1 • just as La Gorce's and Grosvenor's loyalties differed, so did their preju- ices.Gilbert H. Grosvenor, as he once told an interviewer, had"a great sym- L.LL" 6 " \ithy with the idea of combating race prejudice...." ` ' - ' Gilbert H.Grosvenor always said what he thought.John Oliver La Gorce, the other hand, was more circuitous. It is only through reading his cone- q- � ; . • dence and memos that one becomes aware that, unless they kept their - -- *I� L I -;' I ,JOL did not like women,blacks,or Jews—though not necessarily in that i '1� :''��. »der. ►_1_44_ a�t�(.� ( "01,?„!` N , I, GHG had always respected women's contributions to science and the ^ '`n�r�<< v '' t +' � Y . v uv;r �t .�'i1 There were, after all, precedents: Eliza Scidmore had been on the Maga- :;.; :;, ',=f;'.:, `.721,i. `I k:" i. 's masthead before him,and Ida Tarbell was an Associate Editor in 1901. ` , `,;•11�y.C,' ;'. 9 ,t. t , • ' "As you know,I have felt for a long time that we should endeavor to develop '"ll'hh�J'` . I{ e women writers for the Magazine,"" Dr. Grosvenor had written his As- , ,i ,')', ,;) , ' g �a t Editor, J. R. Hildebrand, in 1949. "Women often see things about the t sul 7 i . , and ways of people which a man would not notice....Among the educated i . ;women Miss Strider[Personnel Director]has brought to our staff,I am ± , ; 1. p,,e J� 're' there must be some hidden talent. Men are more forward in presenting i ' ..... 1 F,_s, rf ii askingfor assignments than women perhaps that is one reason whythe f", ''^ ,l�'li_ 1 •"' i'es of our staff have not received as many assignments as the men." Fur- '� _ , a ore,GHG's wife,Elsie,an active suffragist,seems to have had enormous aje I II uence on him.So La Gorce's attitude toward women in general and lack of „ .`; �, %i .j. eciation for women on the work force,in particular,seems to represent his - s and certainlynot those of his Chief who,faced with JOL's intransigence, ,, .- o ed it was easier on occasion simply to bypass La Gorce—an example of ,., a ...., `ch is seen in the parenthetical caveat to the following memo sent on De- ,,, • ..:: .r , '`- :.., 4�; i ..ber 2, 1938,by GHG to the editorial staff: o ''� r If I _ « , :,, 1 IT IS INTERESTING TO NOTE THAT OF THE SIX BEST SELLING BOOKS OF FIC- . r f ;, Cif}, A.--� �ylk f�'" 1^ TION RECORDED IN THE NEW YORK HERALD TRIBUNE OF NOVEMBER 27,THE p ^,i i,.(?j`,,11'4�I1 1� r ' FIRST,SECOND,THIRD, FIFTH AND SIXTH ARE BY WOMEN; AND OF THE NON '. i`• .� I 1• .'� 1 Ii;)i ,11 v�1't‘ FICTION BEST SELLERS, THE TWO FIRST IN POPULARITY ARE WRITTEN BY i. I�%111,' WOMEN. G.H.G. "Blooms, Wooden Shoes,and Wind- ( mill Say It's TWlip Time in Holland, c (TO BE SHOWN TO EACH MEMBER OF THE EDITORIAL STAFF EXCEPTING DR.LA Michigan"was the caption for this GORCE.) March 1952 photograph from the Geographic.Not all the members Perhaps no better evidence of La Gorce's attitude toward women can be were pleased. "Your photographers .nod than in a letter written by him to GHG occasioned by what La Gorce have a mania for photographing ived as a woman staffer's betrayal. costumes,"one wrote. "I am a nudist , and do not care what people wear. In the fall of 1919, Jessie L. Burrall, a female staffer who had earlier that I am nevertheless an epicure,and 1 •' contributed the article "Sight-Seeing in School: Taking Twenty Million I enjoy reading about the foods of •.'ldren on a Picture Tour of the World," had been made Chief of the Geo- other people." , '1 p.phic's then-fledgling School Service Division. In September, Miss Burrall i aroused La Gorce's ire by writing him that she was very interested in re- ous work,and that while traveling for the Society she had been offered the '' ..ship of a college where she would teach religion and would receive,in ad- to a$5,000 salary,room,board,and the use of a car. a special delivery letter La Gorce sent to Gilbert Grosvenor at his Bad- e . summer home,JOL wrote,"I immediately realized why I had always mis- I ted her and why,in spite of your constant urging of her qualities,they were ays discounted by my somewhat uncanny gift of reading human nature and ging people by what I find...." [ 1. 299 I • JOL pointed out that had not GHG hired her,Miss Burrall"would still be d a teacher of geography at$1,500,or$1,800,a year in the back-waters of the Mid- dle West..."and that for her to be"even considering leaving this work..."was "disloyalty pure and simple,showing a very selfish spirit...." '" La Gorce's letter continued: I will not go into the details of my presentation to her of the fact that R\ instead of being the teacher of 400 pupils, in her present work, she was a Y, _-_- teacher of 200,000 teachers and 20,000,000 children and she had her Sun- `. — -.:>'-; a.r day School Class here in Washington which could occupy her from a reli- - gious viewpoint.Further,that there was as much comparison between the countrywide prominence of Chief of the School Service of the National Geographic Society and the Dean of a Jerk-Water College as was between • the occupancy of the White House and the management of the Washington Baseball Team. La Gorce explained that he had told Miss Burrall that GHG was aware that her traveling on behalf of the Society necessitated extra expenses,that he �- would probably increase her salary, and that she should think it over for a few days.Three days later,continued La Gorce's letter, "she came in,looked me in .1 ' _ . .. ' ...I , !I the eye,and said that she had made her absolute decision on the conviction that W"'�; I / 4-' • her work was here, that she would stay, and would not consider for a moment t__,_fa�t �i r_ . , •!,:ni tlfh` w II1. . any other proposition made to her." 9 I'l i� However, La Gorce wrote, Miss Burrall was next offered a job by "some � �t. _ •,,,. � :�r`t I • : Baptist Association in New York," and despite JOL's "request and demand �►.ivg � !,l � that she not disturb you in your rest period" she had telegraphed GHG in l'i y, . i e�.- Baddeck. JOL urged GHG to dismiss Miss Burrall, assuring him that there would j •i� be no difficulty in finding a replacement. "By this," he added, "I do not mean • that we can find a person with all her ability as a worker, a talker, as a social r .' ;; climber,an educational parasite,but we can find a teacher of experience...." La Gorce's letter ends: Hired by Gilbert Hovey Grosvenor in 1905,John Oliver La Gorce remained I know that, with your gentle disposition and unwillingness to hurt at the Society for the next fifty-two anybody's feelings,and Mrs.Grosvenor's interest in the lady,you will prob- years. The photograph at top,showing ably not wish to take the drastic step I suggest.... the Georgia pine paneled and raftered "OFFICE OF JOHN OLIVER LA GORCE,THE JOL was right in his assumption: GHG ignored his request and Miss Bur- ASSOCIATE EDITOR"was published in rail remained at the Society until 1920. 1914. TWenty-two years of accumu- lated clutter and memorabilia later JOL,s attitude toward Jews is revealed in a 1920 memo he wrote to GHG the camera angle was duplicated in containing his response to a proposal that the National Geographic Society this photograph at bottom captioned lend its name to the distribution of films with which the Society had no pre- "IN THIS ROOM JOHN OLIVER LA GORCE vious association and which were made and developed primarily for commer- 'HAS LABORED WITH LOVE AND CEASE- LESS ENERGY""when it appeared in cial reasons: 1936. G.H.G.:No one has a keener enjoyment or a more fulsome appreciation of "On the office walls...are hung what motion pictures have done for humanity than I,but at the same time many strange weapons and trophies the industry is known to be practically in the hands of some of the most collected on travels about the world," the caption explained. "Old ships' unscrupulous men and associations in the country,—mainly Jews who running lights suspended above his have by a process of elimination and massacre absorbed or done away with desk lend a tang of the sea,the the smaller fry,and their business methods have been an unpleasant odor elephant's foot at the right brings to in the commercial nostrils for a long time.... • mind African treks,and many primi- tive knives,arrowheads,spears,and But the most revealing of the La Gorce memos was the one he sent GHG shields always interest visitors." on March 3, 1926,from which the following is extracted: 300 II G.H.G.:May I give you a thought in connection with campaigning for new members in Southern states? I 11 In the matter of the Southern states we have,of course,the danger of negro nominations, but after all that is merely a question of applying thought to the method and at first it will be a trifle more expensive per member,but every other organization in the country is confronted with the , ,:" / ' same thing and are not afraid to enter the field, so why should we be? I would suggest that we put Boutwell on the job of securing from the N.E.A. ,,, or from the Bureau of Education(if we do not have such lists in our files) f ' - c the names of all negro schools and colleges in the Southern states, and to i obtain a list of the faculties. These names could be checked against our _ , membership lists as though they were all nominations,and in the mailing , ' A .c,, out of nomination letters such names could be omitted by the simple pro- ' .,,, '•"1.11, t'"i' cess of putting a tab on the Addressograph card that would trip it through s• ' ' 1 ft .,' ,�.�,tr''� without printing,as in the case of dues. :. a'}l*; '' Pk ' e,,. ,r }: - A second precautionary measure would be to make a special list of all • ~ nominations coming from towns where these schools and colleges are and, �• 1 . -..., without giving the name of the nominator,submit the list to some member - u�4j k'� . .' ., s.t.:." ti '4..1. who we know is white,asking their cooperation in the matter of glancing "'''4 r, ' " ' 1 over the list enclosed and to indicate any names that they know are not of .s"=_Y ,,. �:. .°�� i 44 the white race.It will be unnecessary to go into any further detail with any �af I�f I ` white Southerner,for he,or she,will know why we are making this request t .�Mn ‘ is ilL ' f V: and will be only.too glad to cooperate. There are few large cities in the t,-.4 !f t1 f ',! i South comparatively speaking,and in places of even 30 to 50,000 all white h, j ;�� - ,s . people either know each other,or know who the other fellow is,for that is . l')�, ; ! : peculiar to the South.... !�'';`''� c ` ; w t } There is no indication that GHG ever acknowledged JOL's recommenda- ' I ..� L` ' ,.. tion or that the intricate procedure was ever adopted. Sixteen years later, La � 'f f; • P Gorce was urging GHG not to run a proposed article on black members of the ` .11.• *Pm military because: h: .;= ' . • I fear it would promptly bring insistent demands from the group of ed- ucated Negro agitators who for political reasons have been encouraged and La Gorce poses at the foot of the aided by a wellknown source to strike now for social equality in this coup stairs beneath his portrait in the clubhouse of Miami Beach's La Gorce try.... Country Club,named in his honor. I do not discount the importance of negro soldiers in the present all- La Gorce's Editorship—beginning ' out manpower necessity,but accounts of the Spanish-American and First with Gilbert H. Grosvenor's retire- 1 World Wars do not credit negro soldiers with the sort of courage needed to ment in 1954,and ending with his own win battles. retirement in 1957—was perceived Personally I have always had a kindly feeling for the race,and get along by most of the staff as an interregnum i with them because I understand them.We could go as far as to include now between Grosvenors. and then a picture of Negro troops in training when illustrating appropri- ate articles,but I'd vote against an article about them. JOL's prejudices apparently had little effect on GHG and little impact on c the Society's policies.His strong personal feelings aside,JOL had made signif- icant contributions to the Society during his tenure:His promotion efforts had •increased membership from 10,000 in 1905 to more than two million by the I rime he became Editor.Advertising,too,had flourished in the Magazine under e his direction. In fact, no one since has equaled his advertising record. j Considering that his strength was primarily in promotion and advertising and that he had somewhat limited editorial experience, why was La Gorce made Editor of the Magazine and President of the Society? For several reasons. Chief among them, one suspects, was the feeling that La Gorce deserved the 1 recognition as a reward for his lengthy service. A second reason was that he 111111 301 l r I ' was expected to be an interregnum leader, a custodian, a keeper of the flame. Under GHG's reign, the Society had prospered,and La Gorce was determined to see that during his three.years of tenure nothing was changed. The third reason was that in the context of the times La Gorce's prejudices really were II '! not all that surprising.He,like GHG,was ultra-conservative,a product of the ' :' Victorian era; but unlike GHG, La Gorce reflected the biases of that earlier ' 1 i time. La Gorce's wartime memo, one should note, was written twelve years before the Supreme Court, in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, would unanimously ban segregation in the public schools. ,', ',iI I La Gorce retired on January 8, 1957,after serving less than three years as � � Editor and President. At the time, GHG presented a resolution to the Board ;i ; that reflected the close bond and mutual loyalty he and JOL had shared for half 1 a century. In part, GHG said, "With everything the Society has done...he 1 i has been identified. Many of our most useful and interesting projects he ?; • originated. He labored...to help develop the organization and bring it to the f;;.M.f ;I I dignified position it now holds in the life of our country. i Just as photography at the Geographic was stagnating during the 1950s,so ll was its writing. The Magazine was still running stories like Jean and Franc Shor's"From Sea to Sahara in French Morocco"with such lines as: Morocco is today a neighbor with trouble in its own house.The night we landed in Casablanca terrorists shot up a French cafe a block from our I hotel,killing two Frenchmen and wounding three.In Marrakech,as we watched a parade honoring the retiring Resident General,a bomb shattered Y a French Army unit 50 yards from where we stood.Three soldiers died,28 ___;,3 - were injured.And as we drove from Meknes to Rabat,through Morocco's lir ` 11 breadbasket, the horizon was black with smoke from burning grainfields z - fired by arsonists. _ I Despite its acknowledgment of the civil disruptions then occurring in French Morocco, the piece swiftly becomes upbeat and positive. A friend at J the American Consulate General in Casablanca tells the Shors he thinks their trip from the sea to the Sahara will be no more dangerous than "driving an equal number of miles in American traffic. You and Jean aren't concerned l. with politics,"he says. "You're interested in the land and the people...." Fianc Shor,a member of the Geographicywaseyears and one a legend at the of its two Associate Editors at the time ofhis death in 974 Society. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas called Shor"the most I. • traveled man I have ever met." Shor had traveled around the world at least a Iand once said he had been to every country in the world,includ- ing ing some that weren't legally countries when he visited them.Witty, erudite, y �, I dozen times charming, Shor was the sort of man who, while in Athens for a January 1956 .2' . "Athens to Istanbul" Geographic piece, would be photographed by Queen `,• Frederika of Greece—who would then ask for and receive a credit line on the photograph when it was published in the Magazine. Once Shor was forced to bail out of an airplane over China—and took o On assignment in what was then bridges spanning killed mountain this ravines. rI Formosa in 1949,staff writer Fred- "Many people g erick G. Vosburgh and companions road?" Vosburgh asked. "Not so rode a push car across crude log many,"was the answer. I