Vol. XII, No. lo WASHINGTON 



October, 1901 



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NEXT INTERNATIONAL GEOGRAPHICAL 



CONGRESS TO BE HELD IN 



WASHINGTON 



THE next International Geograph- 

 ical Congress will be held in 

 Washington under the auspices 

 of the National Geographic Society. 

 The acceptance of the invitation ex- 

 tended by the Society has just been re- 

 ceived by President Graham Bell from 

 Baron von Richthofen, President of the 

 Executive Committee of the last Con- 

 gress. This will be the first time the 

 Congress will have assembled in the 

 Western Hemisphere, so that the event 

 will be of much importance to American 

 geographers. The Congress will not be 

 held until 1904, which will allow ample 

 time for the preparation of a program 

 and of a series of excursions to points of 

 geographic interest. 



The object of the Geographical Con- 

 gresses is to stimulate interest in geo- 

 graphic work, and also to promote har- 

 mony in methods of work. It is now 

 thirty years since the first Congress was 

 held, at Antwerp. In 1869 the people 

 of Belgium, by popular subscription, 

 had raised a fund to erect statues to the 

 great Flemish geographers, Mercator 

 and Ortelius. The feeling that the work 

 of these famous men of the sixteenth 



century deserved more than local hom- 

 age led to the arrangement for an inter- 

 national festival at Antwerp in their 

 honor." The festival took place August 

 14-22, 1 87 1. Many geographers from 

 many nations gathered in the old Flem- 

 ish town, and at the meeting papers of 

 much scientific importance were read. 

 So great was the interest and enthusi- 

 asm of all, and so apparent the advan- 

 tage of such a meeting of geographers 

 of all nations, most of them with dif- 

 ferent ideas and different methods, that 

 a resolution was passed to continue the 

 Congress periodically. The name given 

 to the first Congress was ' ' Congres des 

 Sciences geographiques, cosmograph- 

 iques, et commerciales, " the importance 

 of the commercial element in a strictly 

 geographical sense being thus recog- 

 nized definitely. 



At this time a revival in popular in- 

 terest in explorations swept over Eu- 

 rope. The discoveries of lyivingstone 

 during the preceding years in the heart 

 of Africa had awakened the world to 

 the immense unknown portions of the 

 earth's surface. Then came Stanley's 

 march across Africa and the tremendous 



