Man's First Moon Landing. Courtesy of Vesuvius.

[Dalton]

Does anyone have information on the December 1969 issue? Were two issues? I have one copy dispaying the "Sounds of Space" appearing a full page; while another, displaying just over a half page record. The records are the same size, but they were manufactured differently. Also, as noted, the Vesuvius issue with cover..very nice I might add. Could someone possibly shed some light on this edition? Thank you.

[George Thomas Wilson]

Dalton,

As far as I know, there was only one version of the December 1969 issue printed (the one with the partial-page record).  However, in his book, Collectibles of the National Geographic Society, Roger E. Nathan documents an article reprint for the five-part article "First Explorers on the Moon" on page 28.  Generally, article reprints do not include the other articles from the issue, nor do they have advertisements.  Also, they do not have spines, like the magazine, but instead are stapled.  The Society would often issue article reprints on request by organizations or interested parties.

Unfortunately, I do not have a copy of the "original" article reprint mentioned by Nathan, so I have no clue as to the size of the record's page, or even its existence.  I do, however have a newer version of the reprint which was included in the 50th anniversary press kit for the moon landing, documented by Scott Shier HERE.  This newer version of the reprint does not have the record, but has the audio files on a USB, which is included in the kit along with a player.

Now for some questions for you.  Does your Vesuvius version have a spine, or is it stapled?  Does it have other articles and ads, or not?  Is it removal from the "Cover", or attached?  The reason why I asked the last question is that if its attached, you would lose the back cover of the article reprint.  Most article reprints have a blank white page for the back cover, and I do not know whether the older article reprint for this issue has one or not; but the 50th anniversary version has a photo that was not included in the original article on the back cover.

Yours in Collecting,

Tom Wilson

[Dalton]

Man, I love this club. thank you for yours wealth of information, Tom. This copy appears like many of the others..stapled spine, articles, advertisement on reverse cover, etc...feels genuinely authentic. It is removable from the cover. Thanks again.

[Dalton]

I have searched Ebay and found different size record paged similar to which we discussed. I dont think there is a special issue, but maybe two different manufacturing companies? Or, whomever they ordered the record from might have had issues in making them, Nat Geo used them for production.... I am convinced, this Vesuvius holder was possibly a holder that somebody else had made, maybe not National Geographic. I suppose it could have been possible for Nat Geo to do this, but seems highly unlikely.