How WWI got Nat Geo got into the map business
Business
Poland. Denmark. Norway. Belgium. As Hitler’s troops marched across Europe in wave after seemingly unstoppable wave, nations toppled, the conquered states’ borders melting into Germany.
But thousands of miles away, a group of committed National Geographic cartographers had different marching orders: Don’t change the map of Europe until the war is over. Leaving borders in place would show what was at stake.
The National Geographic Society had been making maps since the First World War. National Geographic Society president Gilbert Grosvenor had not only anticipated the conflict, but also knew that National Geographic readers would need maps to understand it. Dissatisfied with the first map he commissioned from an outside company, Grosvenor established a map department within the Society in 1915.Nat Geo was now in the map business—and the inclusion of maps in its magazine piqued...
