National Geographic Magazine Vol. 10 - 12. December 1899

This is late Victorian exploration at its most romantic. The December 1899 issue of National Geographic captures a moment when the world's remaining blank spaces on the map still beckoned adventurers and scientists alike. Walter Wellman chronicles his daring polar expedition, racing toward the North Pole in an era when reaching it seemed possible within a generation. The Harriman Alaska Expedition, led by industrialist Edward H. Harriman and documented by Henry Gannett, brought together botanists, zoologists, and geologists to catalog the wild richness of America's final frontier. Meanwhile, Robert T. Hill tackles a hotter question: the correct spelling of Porto Rico or Puerto Rico, a debate freighted with the recent memory of Spanish-American War and American imperial ambitions in the Caribbean. Meteorological observations, debates over geographic nomenclature, and the emerging science of climatology fill these pages, documenting a world in transition. For readers drawn to the age of polar heroes, or anyone curious how National Geographic grew into the institution it would become, this volume preserves the optimism and rigor of geography's formative years.