Former member of Congress and avid outdoorsman George Shiras, pictured here in the wilderness of his home state of Michigan, pioneered early wildlife photography.

The World of George Shiras
A National Geographic Miscellany

Background

“…You see the magazine, of course?”

“Absolutely.”

“Have you seen the number with the colored plates of the North American Fauna?”

“Yes. I have it in Paris.”

“And the number containing the panorama of the volcanoes of Alaska?”

“That was a wonder.”

“I enjoyed very much, too, the wild animal photographs of George Shiras three.”

“They were damned fine.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“They were excellent. That fellow Shiras—”

“You call him that fellow?”

“We’re old friends,” said Harris.

“I see. You know George Shiras three. He must be very interesting.”

“He is. He’s about the most interesting man I know.”

—Ernest Hemingway, from “Homage to Switzerland”

George Shiras III (or as Shiras signed it, “3d”) first saw the woods and waters of northern Michigan in the summer of 1870, when he was 11 years old. Nothing in his later experience would ever dim the impression they made on him—not the trappings of wealth and position; not the influence of the finest schools; not the example of his father, a U.S. Supreme Court justice; not a promising legal career of his own. Not even a term spent in the U.S. Congress, where he introduced the legislation that would become the Migratory Bird Law—securing for Shiras an important place in the annals of conservation—could lure him away for long.

Shiras returned every summer for over 70 years to his family’s retreat near Lake Superior, responding to something in the landscape and wildlife that aroused in him a profound fascination. Whatever that quality was, it not only prompted him in youth to become an avid hunter and fisher, it further prompted him—by 1889, his 30th year, to largely lay gun and rod aside in favor of a more absorbing instrument: the camera.

	Pictorial supplement to July 1913 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC. Photograph by George Shiras

Wildlife photography barely existed: Cameras were cumbersome and primitive, wildlife elusive and difficult to film. But Shiras’s inventive genius contrived methods and devices that resulted, among other things, in the first flash photographs and the first trip-wire photography of animals at night.

	Pictorial supplement to August 1921 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC. Photograph by George Shiras

The resulting pictures were breathtakingly dynamic, utterly unique for the times. Enlargements of some of them—the famous “Midnight Series” of deer at night (see “Pictorial Supplements” above left and right)—won the gold medal in the forestry division at the Paris Exposition of 1900 and then won top prize in the photographic division as well, without ever having been formally entered in that competition! The series also received the grand prize at the St. Louis World’s Fair in 1904.

Perhaps inevitably, Shiras came to the attention of Gilbert H. Grosvenor, the Editor of NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC—with results profoundly important for both.

	The July 1906 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC published 74 wildlife photographs by Shiras.

Grosvenor printed 74 of Shiras’s photographs in the July 1906 issue—accompanied by only a brief text, a proportion unheard of in its day. The gamble was wildly successful, making this issue (see left) of the magazine one of the most significant ever published. For Shiras, it meant wide dissemination of his pioneering work. For the National Geographic Society, it meant a gratifying surge in membership and the beginning of a close and renowned association with wildlife photography.

The impact of the July 1906 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC reached all the way to the President Theodore Roosevelt, who was so taken that he promptly picked up his pen and implored Shiras to “write a big book—a book of bulk as well as worth, in which you shall embody these pictures and the results of all your invaluable notes upon the habits, not only of game but of the numerous other wild creatures that you have observed….Do go ahead and do this work!”

Shiras was deeply impressed with this appeal. But he was too busy in the active pursuit of photography and conservation work to undertake it at the time. For the next several decades he ranged all over North America with his cameras, and all the while his relationship to the National Geographic Society strengthened.

Between 1906 and 1932 Shiras published nine illustrated articles in the NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, which generated so many requests for prints that pictorial supplements of two of his prizewinning photographs of deer at night (see illustrations) were included with the July 1913 and August 1921 issues.

But as he grew older and his eyesight began to dim, Shiras recalled Roosevelt’s insistence and resolved to finally write his “big book.” Once again he turned to the Geographic. After all, he had been a Society trustee since 1911, and in 1928 he, in turn, entrusted 2,400 of his finest photographs to the Society for permanent retention in its files. Now he selected 950 of these images for inclusion in a two-volume work comprising extensively revised versions of his many articles.

	Failing eyesight in his later years forced Shiras to set aside his camera. He ultimately produced a two-volume book about his wilderness photography.

Called Hunting Wild Game with Camera and Flashlight, the magnum opus was published in 1935. Nearly 30 years had elapsed since Roosevelt had first urged him to compile it, and in belated recognition of this inspiration, Shiras dedicated the volumes to the memory of the late President.

It was very warmly received. The prestigious British journal Nature echoed most reviews when it proclaimed the book “an outstanding work of its kind” that “must be looked upon as a classic in the history of wild life photography.”

Despite this reception, the exacting Shiras unhappily discovered that many minor errors had crept into the text. So despite failing health—for he was now 78—he labored to make the necessary corrections as quickly as possible. The result was the second edition of the work (pictured here)—amended, revised, and enlarged—published in 1936. Still unsatisfied, Shiras even began work on a third edition, but did not finish it before he died in 1942 at 83.

Thus it is the second edition, in Shiras’s judgment, that is the best of the two. Summing up his own life’s work as well as his relationship with the Society, its pages remain the most complete guide to the world of George Shiras, a world of woods and waters and wildlife. It remains a monument to an important early conservationist who is also known as “the original advocate of wildlife photography.”

—Mark Jenkins

Collectors note: The July 1906 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC was so popular that it was reprinted soon after its initial publication. These reprints are apparently indistinguishable from the originals. Reprints were also made in 1964. These are marked “reprint” on the bottom of the cover.

The pictorial supplements issued with the July 1913 and August 1921 issues came folded inside the front covers of the magazines. Both unfolded and framed copies were available upon written request to Society headquarters. As can be seen in the illustrations, it is clear that these reproductions were published by the Society.

Shiras had approved a series of limited-edition bromide enlargements of his award-winning “Midnight” pictures in 1901, prior to his close involvement with the National Geographic Society. These were produced in a variety of sizes, often limited to a thousand copies apiece. “Copyright by George Shiras 3d” would probably appear in the lower left corner of each. These would make a nice find!

Hunting Wild Life by Camera and Flashlight is a handsome two-volume set bound in blue with the Society seal embossed in gold on the front. The first edition, of which about 10,000 copies were printed, was published in October 1935. The second edition, of which about 20,000 copies were printed, was published in September 1936. The price was five U.S. dollars a set, a remarkably low sum, made possible by the fact that neither Shiras nor the Society profited from its sale.

Looking for your own Shiras collectibles? Check our Bulletin Board and Dealers Directory.