The National Geographic Society is celebrating its 125th anniversary this (January 2013) month. These days, the society's magazine has a reputation for promoting great photography, but when it was first published in October 1888, National Geographic was a scientific journal containing no photographs at all. From a small readership in the early days to some 8 million subscribers around the globe each month, the magazine has come a long way.
As technology developed, and the expectations of its growing readership evolved, so did The National Geographic's approach to photography. The early decades of the 20th Century saw the first use of of black-and-white and color-tinted photographs, and the 1920s and 1930s brought with them increased use of color photography. In the 1960s the magazine launched its first all-color issue and a cover photograph replaced the oak and laurel leaves, acorns and hemispheres that adorned the cover for six decades.
