Explorers Club

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This article is about the science organization. For the artist, see Explorers Club (artist)

The Explorers Club is an international multidisciplinary professional society formed by the survivors of Frederick Cook's 1894 arctic expedition. The Society is dedicated to the advancement of field research and the ideal that it is vital to preserve the instinct to explore. Since its inception in 1904, the Club has served as a meeting point and unifying force for explorers and scientists worldwide.

1 Promotion in the scientific fields
2 Carrying the Flag
3 Anthropologists to Zoologists
4 Parody
5 External links

[edit] Promotion in the scientific fields

Founded in New York City in 1904, The Explorers Club promotes the scientific exploration of land, sea, air, and space by supporting research and education in the physical, natural and biological sciences. The Club's members have been responsible for an illustrious series of famous firsts: First to the North Pole, first to the South Pole, first to the summit of Mount Everest, first to the deepest point in the ocean, first to the surface of the moon—all accomplished by its members.

The Club provides expedition resources including funding, online information, and member-to-member consultation. Its annual dinners honor accomplishments in exploration. But probably the most powerful resource available to those who join the Club is fellowship with other members—a global network of expertise, experience, technology, industry, and support. The Explorers Club actively encourages public interest in exploration and the sciences through its public lectures program, publications, travel program, and other events. The Club also maintains Research Collections, including a library and map room, to preserve the history of the Club and to assist those interested and engaged in exploration and scientific research.

[edit] Carrying the Flag

The Explorers Club flag represents an impressive history of courage and accomplishment and has been carried on hundreds of expeditions by Club members since 1918. To carry the Club flag is an honor and a privilege. It has flown at both poles, from the highest peaks of the greatest mountain ranges, travelled to the depths of the ocean, to the lunar surface, and outer space. A flag expedition must further the cause of exploration and field science. Today there are 202 numbered flags, each with its own history. "A flag expedition must further the cause of exploration and field science."

[edit] Anthropologists to Zoologists

The Explorers Club, which has some thirty chapters in the United States and around the world, is characterized by the great diversity of its members' backgrounds and interests. The seven founding members included two polar explorers, the curator of birds and mammals at The American Museum of Natural History, an archaeologist, a war correspondent and author, a professor of physics and an ethnologist. Today the membership includes field scientists and explorers from over sixty countries whose disciplines include: aeronautics, anthropology, archaeology, astronomy, biology, ecology, entomology, mountaineering, marine biology, oceanography, paleontology, physics, planetology, polar exploration, and zoology.

[edit] Parody

The South Park episode "The Return of Chef" had an organization called 'Super Adventure Club' parodying L. Ron Hubbard and Scientology. Hubbard was a member of the Explorers Club and so this is a partial source for the 'Super Adventure Club' although it is arguable the Explorers Club is not being parodied itself.

In the 2003 novel Gilligan's Wake, Thurston J. Howell III is at one point approached by Alger Hiss about starting a cell of the Communist Party USA in the guise of a chapter of the Explorers Club.