The Society was organized in January, 1888, under the laws of the District of Columbia, and has at present an active membership of about two hundred persons. But there is no limitation to the number of members, and it will welcome both leaders and followers in geographic science, in order to better accomplish the objects of its organization.
Correspondence with the Society should be addressed to Mr. GEORGE KENNAN, Corresponding Secretary, No. 1318 Massachusetts Avenue, Washington, D. C.
BY THE PRESIDENT, MR. GARDINER G. HUBBARD.
I am not a scientific man, nor can I lay claim to any special knowledge that would entitle me to be called a "Geographer." I owe the honor of my election as President of the National Geographic Society simply to the fact that I am one of those who desire to further the prosecution of geographic research. I possess only the same general interest in the subject of geography that should be felt by every educated man.
By my election you notify the public that the membership of our Society will not be confined to professional geographers, but will include that large number who, like myself, desire to promote special researches by others, and to diffuse the knowledge so gained, among men, so that we may all know more of the world upon which we live.
By the establishment of this Society we hope to bring together (1) the scattered workers of our country, and (2) the persons who desire to promote their researches. In union there is strength, and through the medium of a national organization, we may hope to promote geographic research in a manner that could not be accomplished by scattered individuals, or by local societies; we may also hope--through the same agency--to diffuse the results of geographic research over a wider area than would otherwise be possible.
The position to which I have been called has compelled me to become a student. Since my election I have been trying to learn the meaning of the word "geography," and something of the history of the science to which it relates. The Greek origin of the word ([Greek: gê], the earth, and [Greek: graphê], description) betrays the source from which we derived the science, and shows that it relates to a description of the earth. But the "earth" known to the Greeks was a very different thing from the earth with which we are acquainted.