Today in History - 1888

On this day, nine months after the National Geographic Society was founded, the first NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC magazine was published. A studious, scientific journal with a nondescript, dull-brown cover, it bore no resemblance to the color-illustrated periodical it would come to be. On its first two pages, however, was an announcement stating the mission that was to guide the Society and its magazine for the next century and beyond:

"The 'National Geographic Society' has been organized 'to increase and diffuse geographic knowledge,' and the publication of a Magazine has been determined upon as one means of accomplishing these purposes. As it is not intended to be simply the organ of the Society, its pages will be open to all persons interested in geography, in the hope that it may become a channel of intercommunication, stimulate geographic investigation and prove an acceptable medium for the publication of results."

The magazine was published on a somewhat irregular basis at first. The publisher waited to publish the next issue until enough material accumulated to fill it.