History
The Royal Canadian Geographical Society was founded in 1929 by Charles Camsell and a group of eminent Canadians, including Marius Barbeau, an ethnographer and folklorist who is today considered a founder of Canadian anthropology, Hon. A.E. Arsenault, Premier of Prince Edward Island and Justice of the province's Supreme Court, Lawrence J. Burpee, Secretary for Canada, International Joint Commission, John Wesley Dafoe, Managing Editor, (Winnipeg) Free Press, Hon. Albert Hudson, a Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, and Dr. O.D. Skelton, Under-Secretary of State for External Affairs. The Rt. Hon. Viscount Willingdon, Governor-General of Canada, was founding Patron. J.B. Joseph Tyrrell, a geologist and cartographer whose exploits include the discovery of Albertosaurus bones in Alberta's Bandlands, and making first contact with the Ihalmiut ("People from Beyond") of the Keewatin district of Canada's Northwest Territories, served as founding Honorary President. Arthur Philemon Coleman, a geologist and explorer who between 1884 and 1908 made eight trips of discovery to the Canadian Rockies, was named Honorary Vice-President. At its first meeting, Dr. Camsell said the Society was formed "purely for patriotic purposes," and hoped it would "be a unifying influence upon the life of Canada." A report by the Acting Secretary, E.S. Martindale, stated the intention of the founders: "The work of making the resources and other geographic factors of each part of the Dominion more widely known and more clearly understood is one of the best educational services that can be undertaken -- and one that cannot be rendered except through a geographic organization animated by a broad national purpose."
The RCGS publishes the award-winning English-language magazine, Canadian Geographic, which has been published continuously since 1930 (when it was called the Canadian Geographical Journal). The Society’s French-language magazine, Géographica, which is published in collaboration with La Presse, was introduced in 1997.
Alan Beddoe designed the arms for The Royal Canadian Geographical Society and his fonds includes a black and white photograph of the letters patent.
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“Universal history is the history of a few metaphors.”
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