This Web site exists to help you. Check the Dealers Directory for contacts who can help you locate those hard-to-find items. Use the Collectors’ Bulletin Board to exchange information with other National Geographic collectors. Visit Collectible of the Month and learn about rare Geographica. Check the NGS Publications Index for a listing of all National Geographic titles and subjects. It will help you identify various Society publications you may find of interest. Some back issues of the NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC magazine are still in print and may be purchased through the NGS Store. And always be sure to take good care of your collection. Check out Preservation Tips for information about proper storage and conditions.

For many years, people have collected NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC magazines, maps, books, and other publications of the Society. Early in the 20th century the wealth of illustrations and the accuracy of information published in the NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC magazine made it increasingly difficult for people to discard their issues and the maps which frequently accompanied them. Gradually collections were assembled, and today many people enjoy collecting National Geographic publications and memorabilia as a hobby. The NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC is one of the most preserved and frequently bound magazines published in this century.

The Society has been publishing its famous journal since its founding in 1888, and now over 1,200 issues have been released. It is relatively easy to collect all of the NATIONAL GEOGRAPHICs published in the last 30 years and still possible to collect all of them back through the 1920s. Beyond that it gets increasingly difficult—but increasingly challenging and rewarding as well. Serious collectors prize most highly the magazines from the first twenty-five years of the Society’s history. There are many “special issues” which are highly regarded as well.

The Society’s maps are almost as well known as the magazines, having served U.S. Presidents, guided Allied forces in World War II, and given thousands of members the means to follow world events or study the geographical relationships of our times. Nearly all maps were originally issued as supplements in various issues of the NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC magazine, and are a rewarding object of collection in themselves as well as a superb historical resource.

The Society’s atlases and globes are also popular and respected collector's items. Collect each edition and study the changes that have taken place in the interim between each. There is no better way to visualize the interplay between history and geography.

The Society has been underwriting and publishing books for a century now, and some of the earliest volumes are among the most difficult of all Society collectibles to locate. Until the mid-1900s, many books were compilations of articles from NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC magazines, but in the late 1950s the Geographic began to publish originally conceived books on a regular basis. A number of them sold as many copies as modern bestsellers, and though out-of-print now should still be relatively easy to find.

The list of possible Society collectibles is nearly inexhaustible, and serious collectors don’t stop with the published products of the Society, but eagerly seek memorabilia and ephemera of all kinds: illustrated lecture brochures, promotional packets, programs of important Society events and anniversaries, and the like. Some of these pieces are as interesting as the better known publications!

So where does the interested collector begin to look for Geographic items? Older friends and family members may have copies of the magazines or other items they wish to dispose of and may be glad to give them to you or sell them to you for a reasonable price. Check out second hand book stores, yard and estate sales, charity bazaars, auctions, and flea markets. You can often find good buys at these events. Collect all you can, and don’t be concerned about mistakenly acquiring a duplicate item. Use it to swap with another collector for something you want for your collection.

Note: The National Geographic Society does not endorse any sales arrangements between collectors and/or dealers nor does it appraise the value of collections or specific items.