National Geographic Society is one of the world’s largest nonprofit scientific and educational organizations. It was formed in 1888 to gather and spread geographic information throughout the world. It has millions of members all over the world. The society has sponsored and supported a wide variety of expeditions and research projects.
The society distributes information through National Geographic, a monthly journal; National Geographic Kids, a magazine for children; National Geographic Little Kids, a magazine for younger children; National Geographic Traveler, a travel magazine; authoritative books; and an information service for the press, radio, and television. It produces atlases, globes, maps, computer programs for schools, and television programs. The society also sponsors a program to train geography teachers and promote the teaching of geography in classrooms.
Among the projects the National Geographic Society has helped sponsor are the historic polar expeditions by Richard E. Byrd and Robert E. Peary. The society also helped back the first successful United States expedition to the top of Mount Everest and aided in the discovery of the wreckage of the sunken Titanic. It also sponsored excavations in east Africa that uncovered fossils of primitive human beings who lived about 2 million years ago.
In 1997, the National Geographic Society partnered with the Fox Entertainment Group to launch the National Geographic Channels cable television group. In 2015, the National Geographic Society formed a commercial joint venture with 21st Century Fox that gave the American entertainment company a majority stake in the society’s other properties, including National Geographic. The National Geographic Society continues to operate as a nonprofit organization. Its headquarters are in Washington, D.C.
