GARDINER GRHENb HUBBARl) 



It is with tlie most profound rcurft tliat v.c n-conl tin- death 

 of Mr Gardiner G. llul)l»ard, wliidi occurri-d at his country 

 house, Twin Oaks, near Washington, on Saturday, Deeemher 11. 



While tlie Joint Commission of the Scientific Societies of 

 Washington mourns tlie loss of a many-sided and l»road-inin<i»-d 

 l)resident, the Smithsonian Institution a most active and saga- 

 cious regent, the Goluinhian University a generous and indefat- 

 igable trustee, and other educational, patriotic, and henevolent 

 institutions of the national capital a lihcral hciu-factor. a wise 

 counselor, or an earnest colahorer. it is in the National (Jeographic 

 Society and its work that the most C(»ns])icuous gap has Ix-m 

 created. The President of this Society from its foundation. Mr 

 Hubbard was enabled by a combination of circumst^inces as 

 exceptional as it Avas fortunate to sustain a relation to it that is 

 probably without a parallel in the history of scientific societies. 

 It is no new thing for such societies to enjoy the benefactions of 

 ■wealthy and generous i)atrons and the inestimalile advantage of 

 the wise counsels of far-seeing and judicial-miniled advisers con- 

 currently with the insi>iring influence of men of the broadest 

 culture and the most progressive ideas. Rarely if ever before, 

 however, have these qualities and functions been united in one 

 individual, or has there been so singularly varied a capacity for 

 usefulness as was given to Mr Hubbard and as he exercised to 

 its fullest extent. The loss to the National Geographic Society 

 is for this reason an irreparable one. and the ordinary expressions 

 of regret seem cold and conventional. 



It is impossible, in this number of the Magazine, to attempt a 

 l)ortrayal of Mr Hul)bard's unique personality, or to do justice 

 to the nobility of his character, or render adeciuate tribute to his 

 unexami)led services to the Society. We can only record his 

 deejdy lamented death, refer thus briefly to his untiring laboi-s 

 for the advancement of science, and announce that a more ex- 

 tended notice of his life and w.uk will appear in the .lanu.iry 

 number of this journal. •'• ''■ 



