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I just put down my October 1914 issue of National Geographic and while reading it I noticed some pages similar to those in the March 1914 issue on which I commented in an earlier post.

The issue itself only has two articles, one on Hungary with 92 illustrations and the other on England with 11 illustrations.  Whether this was an intentional display of "neutrality" for the World War I foes or not who can say, but what caught my attention was the six extra illustrations not documented on the cover.

After the second article but before the advertisements there are six photos from the far east (Korea, Burma, and Japan).  The first four pages (two sheets) are just like the ones I discussed in the March issue.  One side in color/the other black & white; a different stock of paper from the rest of the magazine; no page numbers; and a slightly smaller size from the rest of the pages.  The last two photos (one sheet) have both sides black & white, the same paper stock as the magazine, page numbers; and of a normal size.

What makes all six different is that they are not related either article in the issue.  This was not the case in March where the pages I discussed were interspersed within, and related to, the articles in the magazine.

It appears that the color (or colorized) photos were processed separately from the rest of the magazine and then inserted later, but the page numbers on the last sheet do account for the four unnumbered pages.

Tom Wilson

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Hey Tom,

Funny, I was just re-pondering this briefly the other day . . . e.g., that sometimes a group of photos would appear 'wedged in' a 1910's issue of NGM that seemingly were random, or in the least not apparently connected w/ the article preceding or following them -- whether they were photogravure pages or not. 

Like you, I have my 1914 year out specifically on my shelf (rather than in archival storage packing) and have been looking at them here n' there throughout this year. I had not pored over October quite yet. I don't remember which issue, but I was just noticing the same thing that there were some pages not listed on the de facto "contents" page --the front cover-- nor were they organic to any articles. It is worthy of mention, as you just have.

The only thing that pops to my mind with your comments above, is to remind ourselves (or learn/re-learn it) that Gilbert H. Grosvenor frequently would fill in a 'short' issue with miscellaneous photos/photo-pages, to meet a deadline and/or page count requirement . . . where there wasn't enough leeway (either time or space) to drop a prepared/ready article in, or some such. This is what caused the transformation of NGM in the first place. 


It's also what started GHG's strategic acquisition & stock-piling of photos and archive illustrations from all over the world. There's the aspect of his reaching out to organizations (governments and universities especially) to get their holdings outright, or copies if not.

I'm gonna look at October 1914 later as per your comments just to refresh on those images. In this case I think that's what happened . . . war considerations likely irrelevant. 

While we're on the topic, I just wanted to comment that I am very excited about this next couple years in the sense of re-living the corresponding NGM's for autumn 1914 - July 1919, in the sense that NGM during this phase is very, very intriguing to me personally. The Great War is a particular specific interest of mine, in conjunction with the Edwardian Era/Gilded Age, TITANIC, and the war.

In fact I can Go far as to say that of all the decades as stand-alone units for NGM, the 1910's are at the top for personal interest and pleasure. The other key decades --for me-- are the 1980's (the Garrett/Gilka/Paine era esp), the 1920's, and I think that stretch from about 1960-1964 is also especially unique, memorable. 

*by that I don't mean all the other decades don't do it for me - I love them all - just the ones I call-out hold particular pull over me, ha.


cheers,

Yes, I remember going through the year some years ago trying to find out if a reference to "additional photos to come" or "in relation to photos previously published," existed to somehow tie these random photos to an article.

Alas - nothin' doing!

They (this group specifically) just happened to "pop in/pop up" without warning - but they are definitely are part of the official October 1914 issue.

These little tid-bits are what make collecting interesting.

Thanks Tom!

Mel

Mel,

While there is no reference to these photos in the abbreviated index for vol. 26 (title page & table of content only) there may be one in the full index of which I do not currently possess.

There is however at least one reference to them in the 1888-1946 cumulative index on page 310 under the heading "Japan" which reads:

Japan. XXVI, pp. 415-420, 3 ills., Oct., 1914

I could not find any references to the other 3 illustrations under "Burma" or "Korea" but that does not mean they aren't buried somewhere.

Ain't metadata fun!

Tom

Thanks for the lead Tom!

The annual index for the second half of 1914 lists all of the Japanese illustrations and the one Burma illustration.

It does not list either of the Korean illustrations under any name, i.e. Korea, city, shrine or farmer.

Yep, thumbs up to metadata...

Mel

Oh ~ you know what . . . 

I just remembered something else:

On a handful of occasions, GHG would insert (a la these photos in Oct. 1914) unused-but-printed sheafs of aborted material. Similar to how they were still using up miscellaneous cover stock from the early formats, after such formats had been discontinued. This is why certain later article reprints (and think the April 1905 wine-colored variant/reprint) were using the cover paper from retired NGM cover stock. 

That first photo you're talking about (Korean) is also on a smaller sized press-cut sheet. It makes me wonder if it was leftover (unused) editorial content from J & D (or, McCalls') from the 1895/96-1905 time-frame, and such that NGM had already paid for them and they were sitting in a warehouse somewhere....

...It could explain why the Korea sheet is A] not indexed ; B] cut to a different size ; C] why it's a different color + paper type altogether. 


I am now of the mind to question whether or not EVERY October 1914 issue even has it bound in ? !

The above is speculation based on actual instances of like nature actually occurring. It strikes me that one avenue to explore is to again backtrack w/ these pages in mind, and look for relevant articles in NGM from 1895-1913 , haha. 


Scott,

When I first discovered this several years ago, I had a bunch of the Oct 1914 in various conditions. Every one of them had these pictures bound in them.

Now all I have is my loose collection and bound collection - and they both have these same pictures.

I admit, a handful does not a definite answer give, but the randomness of having those handful should be a strong indicator.

Mel

I agree !

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