THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY 



459 



mean that your business for each day is 

 complete in itself, and a trial balance 

 struck before that day's books are closed. 

 The prompt service received by your 

 members through this system is an im- 

 portant factor in the wonderful growth 

 the Society has enjoyed. 



"Your new building adjoining Hub- 

 bard Memorial Hall will be a standing 

 monument to represent the good work 

 carried on by the Society." 



The style of architecture of the new 

 building is Italian Renaissance, and the 

 material white brick, trimmed with white 

 limestone, making it harmonize in every 

 detail with the Hubbard Memorial Hall, 

 with which it is connected by passages 

 in the basement and in the first two 

 stories. The hallway is paved with white 

 and green marble, while the walls are of 

 rich but plain Italian Batticino marble, 

 which gives a pleasing effect to the eye. 

 The first floor is the only one that covers 

 the entire space of the lot ; in the upper 

 stories one-third of the space is occupied 

 by a 20-foot air shaft, inclosed on only 

 three sides. The result is that there is 

 not a dark corner in the entire building, 

 making it lighter on dark days than most 

 modern office buildings are when the sun 

 is shining. 



THE SEVERAL DEPARTMENTS 



The first floor of the new building is 

 devoted to the reception offices, the office 

 of the Assistant Secretary, and the ad- 

 dressing and mailing rooms. The second 

 floor is occupied by the correspondence 

 department, which receives and answers 

 upward of a thousand letters on the av- 

 erage day. The third floor is devoted to 

 the editorial department. 



The office of the Director and Editor 

 consists of two rooms, paneled from top 

 to bottom in dark cypress, with an orna- 

 mental beamed ceiling. Next to these is 

 the office of the Associate Editor, paneled 

 throughout with Georgia pine. The gen- 

 eral editorial room is a spacious one, with 

 perhaps 350 square feet of window space. 

 In this room is the large fireproof vault 

 used for storing the thousands of photo- 

 graphs which have come from all parts 

 of the world, constituting what probably 



is the greatest collection of geographic 

 pictures to be found anywhere. On the 

 fourth floor the accounting department 

 has its quarters. The remainder of that 

 floor is taken up by the kitchen and em- 

 ployees' dining-room. 



With the new building occupied by the 

 business and editorial activities of the 

 Society, it is now possible to devote Hub- 

 bard Memorial Hall to its scientific ac- 

 tivities. The rooms on the ground floor 

 of this building are used for the meetings 

 of the Board of Managers, the Research 

 Committee, and such other committees 

 of the Society as have occasion to meet 

 for conference. The upper story is given 

 over to the library and an exhibition hall. 

 The library has been renovated and its 

 small but valuable collection of books re- 

 catalogued and rearranged. 



THE SOCIETY'S WORK 



The Society encourages exploration 

 and geographic research by means of 

 such financial grants as its resources will 

 permit. In cooperation with Yale Uni- 

 versity, it has recently maintained a large 

 expedition in Peru, making geographical, 

 geological, and archeological investiga- 

 tions around Cuzco, in a region which is 

 generally believed to have been the birth- 

 place of the famous and little-known Inca 

 race. It also had an expedition in Alaska 

 investigating the recent eruption of Mt. 

 Katmai, this study being preliminary to 

 a comprehensive investigation of what is 

 perhaps the most stupendous volcanic belt 

 on the earth. The Society has just con- 

 cluded a series of investigations, extend- 

 ing over three years, of the glaciers of 

 Alaska, one of the most important fields 

 of geographical research in America. 



Its earlier expeditions to Alaska did 

 much pioneer work in the exploration of 

 that territory. In 1902 the Society sent 

 an expedition to Mount Pelee and La 

 Soufriere to study the terrible eruptions 

 of these volcanoes. The Society has as- 

 sisted various Arctic expeditions, notably 

 the last expedition of Robert E. Peary, 

 which discovered the North Pole, April 

 6, 1909. In 1909 it sent to Sicily a 

 trained geologist to investigate the Mes- 

 sina earthquake. A popular account of 



