Melville Bell Grosvenor - Early Life and Career

Early Life and Career

Grosvenor was born in Washington, D.C., on November 26, 1901. The following year, in his grandfather's arms, he headed lay the cornerstone of the National Geographic Society's first building, Hubbard Hall. His mother, the former Elsie May Bell, was the daughter of Alexander Graham Bell. Grosvenor enrolled in the U.S. Naval Academy in 1919. On June 8, 1923, he graduated from the United States Naval Academy with the Class of 1923, which included his lifelong friend, Admiral Arleigh Burke. Grosvenor was commissioned an Ensign in the United States Navy and shortly after married Helen Rowland of Washington, D.C. In 1924, Grosvenor resigned from the Navy and joined the staff of the National Geographic Society as a picture editor. Grosvenor is credited with taking the first color aerial photograph when he took a shot of the Statue of Liberty by circling the monument in a Navy Airship ZM C2. The photograph was published in the September 1930 issue, leading the Society to adopt the Finlay process, then the newest method for producing color photographs. He also took early aerial color photographs of Washington, D.C., which appeared in the magazine.