biography
| name: |
Grosvenor, Gilbert (Hovey)
|
pronunciation:
[grohvner]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1875–1966)
|
| biography:
| Editor, naturalist, and geographer, born in Constantinople, Turkey. The son of an American professor of history, he returned to the USA as a teenager. After graduating from Amherst College, he became an editorial assistant (1899) at the National Geographic magazine, rising to editor (1903–54), and also served as president of the National Geographic Society (1920–54), the parent organization of the magazine. By using more engaging illustrations and approaching geography in the broadest possible manner, he made the magazine more accessible to lay readers. During his tenure, membership in the Society also increased from c.1000 to over four million. The increased revenue was used to sponsor scientific teams and exploration expeditions all across the globe and under the oceans, so rather than just reporting on the world, he and his magazine were instrumental in widening knowledge about it. Grosvenor Lake in Alaska, Gilbert Grosvenor Range in Antarctica, and Grosvenor-filliet, a mountain in the Svalbard islands off Norway, are named after him. He married the daughter of Alexander Graham Bell (1900). |
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