Gilbert Hovey Grosvenor

Gilbert Hovey Grosvenor
File:Gilbert Hovey Grosvenor 1927.jpg
Born	(1875-10-28)October 28, 1875 Constantinople, Ottoman Empire (now Istanbul, Turkey)
Died	Cape Breton Island, Canada
Known for	National Geographic Magazine
Spouse(s)	Elsie May Bell
Children	Seven, including Dr. Mabel Grosvenor
Relatives	Alexander Graham Bell father-in-law Mabel Gardiner Bell mother-in-law William Howard Taft second cousin

Gilbert Hovey Grosvenor (October 28, 1875 – February 4, 1966), father of photojournalism, was the first full-time editor of National Geographic Magazine (1899-1954). Grosvenor is credited with having built the magazine into the iconic publication that it is today.

As President of the National Geographic Society, he assisted its rise to one of the world's largest and best known science and learning organizations, aided by the chronicling in its magazine of ambitious natural and cultural explorations around the globe.

Biography

Grosvenor was born in 1875 to Lilian Waters and Edwin A. Grosvenor in Istanbul, Turkey (Constantinople), and educated at Worcester Academy and at Robert Elementary School. He attended Amherst College and graduated with the AB degree magna cum laude in 1897. While at Amherst, Grosvenor and his twin brother Edwin were one of the best tennis doubles teams. Grosvenor became the President of the National Geographic Society (1920–1954). Grosvenor married Elsie May Bell (1878–1964), the daughter of Alexander Graham Bell.

Grosvenor's health deteriorated following the death of his wife and he died peacefully in his sleep at the age of 90 on February 4, 1966.

National Geographic Society

Grosvenor was hired in 1899 as the first full-time employee of the National Geographic Society by Alexander Graham Bell, the Society's President at the time. He eventually was named Director, and later President of the Society, and remained Editor of the magazine until 1954.

Grosvenor advocated policies of neutrality and positive, upbeat journalism through two world wars, the Great Depression, and the beginning of the Cold War. This style was seen as innovative in the opening years of the 20th century. However, by the 1950s, Grosvenor's style was criticized as being ossified and dated. He and his staff (most of whom were in their late 60s and 70s) were criticized as being conservative, complacent, and unwilling to modernize, and the National Geographic's subscription base fell as a consequence. After 50 years at the helm, he stepped down in 1954 at the age of 78.

Support for the National Park Service

Grosvenor first traveled to the western United States in 1915 to hike with Stephen Mather in the Sierra Mountains and what is now Sequoia National Park. "Grosvenor was so overwhelmed by the grandeur of the High Sierras and his experience on the trip that he became a revered and long-time friend of Mather and the national parks," according to National Park Service historian Walter Bielenberg. Following his return, Grosvenor provided funding to buy Giant Forest and add it to Sequoia National Park.

For years, opposition in Congress had prevented creation of a national system of parks. In late 1915 and 1916, Grosvenor met with Stephen Mather, Horace Albright, and others to draft the Organic Act, which would create a National Park Service. He then created a special issue of the National Geographic Magazine (April 1916) entitled "The Land of the Best" to promote the importance of parks and encouraged readers to support creation of a national system. He and Albright made sure that every member of Congress had a copy of the issue. Their efforts worked, and that year legislation finally passed that would establish the National Park Service.

Grosvenor continued involvement with the National Parks over the years. He became very involved in protecting the Katmai volcanic crater and Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes from mining exploitation, and helped to establish Katmai National Monument in 1918.

Other

Grosvenor was also the:

• father of National Geographic president Melville Bell Grosvenor (1901–1982), and of Dr. Mabel Harlakenden Grosvenor (1905–2006), plus five other children;
• grandfather of National Geographic president Gilbert Melville Grosvenor; and
• the 'true' father of photojournalism.

Legacy

Grosvenor is buried in Rock Creek Cemetery alongside his wife and members of the Bell family. Grosvenor Arch, a sandstone double arch located in southern Utah, is named after Gilbert Grosvenor. In 1931 Grosvenor bought a property in Coconut Grove, Florida next door to his brother-in-law, David Fairchild. He called this estate Hissar after the small town in Turkey where he was born. After Fairchild's estate, The Kampong, was acquired by the National Tropical Botanical Garden they bought Hissar also. Grosvenor served on the Board of Trustees of the University of Miami from 1944 to 1960. In the 1950s, Grosvenor's daughter acquired an historic building in Baddeck, Nova Scotia which she named Gilbert H. Grosvenor Hall in his honour.

Family

Grosvenor's third child, a daughter, Dr. Mabel Harlakenden Grosvenor (Beinn Bhreagh, Nova Scotia, July 28, 1905 – Baddeck, Nova Scotia, October 30, 2006), was a Canadian-born pediatrician, with dual Canadian-U.S. citizenship. For several years she was secretary to her grandfather Alexander Graham Bell, and lived in both Beinn Bhreagh, Nova Scotia and Washington, D.C. Mabel oversaw the stewardship of Bell's legacy Canadian estate at Beinn Bhreagh, Baddeck, Nova Scotia, until her death, and was also the Honorary President of the Alexander Graham Bell Club (founded in 1891), Canada's oldest continuing women's club. The club grew out of a social organization started at Beinn Bhreagh, by her grandmother and namesource Mabel Bell.

Gilbert Grosvenor was second cousin to U.S. President and U.S. Supreme Court Justice William Howard Taft.

See also

• Siraitia grosvenorii, a plant named after Dr Grosvenor who as president of the National Geographic Society helped to fund its scientific study

Gallery

• 

  Elsie May and Gilbert H. Grosvenor, three-quarter length portrait, seated, facing front holding their son, Melville. From the Gilbert H. Grosvenor Collection of Photographs of the Alexander Graham Bell Family (Library of Congress).

• 

  Gilbert Grosvenor holds his young son, Melville Bell Grosvenor, 1902. Library of Congress.

• Gilbert H Grosvenor.jpg

  Grosvenor traveled in California with Stephen Mather and helped write the act that created the National Parks. Photo courtesy of the National Park Service.

• 

  Memorial for Gilbert and Elsie Grosvenor in Rock Creek Cemetery in Washington, D.C.

Further reading

• Poole, Robert M. Explorers House: National Geographic and the World it Made. New York: Penguin, 2004. ISBN 1-59420-032-7

External links

• Works by Gilbert Hovey Grosvenor at Project Gutenberg