Explorers house : National Geographic and the world it made / Robert Poole.

Includes index.

Alec and Mabel -- A quiet birth -- The first Grosvenor -- A new generation -- Educating Melville -- The first hero -- off to war -- The changing order -- The crash -- A gentlemanly standard -- The birthright -- Melville takes charge -- The best of times -- facing life -- Broken friendship -- The third flowering.

For more than a century, through unparalleled research, exploration, publications, and photography, the National Geographic Society and its magazine have, in many ways, defined how we see the world. This book, based on unprecedented archival and inside information, provides a behind-the-scenes look, from its start in 1888 to its evolution into an iconic American institution, as well as the family story �bsof the Grosvenor media dynasty which, along with Alexander Graham Bell, created the photography-based monthly. Also shows the inside workings of the magazine's editorial process, providing a look behind some of its ground-breaking articles and explorations--from Cousteau's famous Calypso voyages to the origins of Jane Goodall's research on chimpanzees to the institution's 1963 Mt. Everest expedition.