My Oldest "National Geographic

The National Geographic Magazine, November 1927, "Volume LII, Number Five, $3.50 A Year" "50 cents The Copy."  How did this incredible treasure from my grandparents, Marie and Rob, survive these 86 years!  What were Granny and Grandpa doing in 1927?  They were both 29 years old.  My mother, Adeline, was 8 years old.  Along with my Uncle Robert, 10 years old, the family lived with Grandma's parents, Mary and Lawrence, in a shotgun house in the Germantown section of Louisville, Kentucky, U.S.A.  Grandpa had just started working for a wholesale food dealer, a job which would last 45 years.

The magazine: both the front and back covers were torn off and faded but still intact.  The inside cover reports that the National Geographic Society was "organized for "the increase and diffusion of geographic knowledge". . .To carry out the purposes for which it was founded thirty-nine years ago,  the National Geographic Society publishes this magazine."

I must page through it, cover to cover.  The ads, all printed black-and-white, are 'wordy' and remind me of how good it is to be a housekeeper in 2013 instead of in 1927.  A floor polisher promises help for housewives "to scrape. . .to sandpaper. . .to wax. . .and to polish their floors."  Some car companies that advertised are still in business: Lincoln, Ford and General Motors, while others: Packard and Essex, vanished.  Who needs "The World Book" or "Britannica Encyclopedia" since we have the internet?  Whitman's Sampler candy is still very much enjoyed.  Although I'll admit to remembering the Ice Man bringing very large blocks of ice with large black tongs to my grandparents 'ice box,' when I was a pre-schooler, now I'm spoiled by my refrigerator's ice and water dispensers in the door.  In 1927 Frigidaire electric refrigerator "saves an average of $105.36 per year over and above all operating costs - savings of ice bills and food waste."

All photos are also printed black-and-white except for a 16-page centerfold 'autochromes.'

The next blog entry will detail the very first, very long, very informative and very exciting article I read.