About the Club
The Explorers Club is an international multidisciplinary professional society 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. Our headquarters is located at 46 East 70th Street in New York City.
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 our members.
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The Club provides expedition resources including funding, online information, and member-to-member consultation. And our famed 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.
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.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. You can find out more about what our members are doing in the Expeditions section of the site.History
A Gathering Place
In May 1904, a group of men active in exploration met at the request of Henry Collins Walsh, to form an organization to unite explorers in the bonds of good fellowship and to promote the work of exploration by every means in its power.
Famous Firsts in Exploration
For more than a century, members of the Club have traversed the earth, the seas, the skies, and even the moon, on expeditions of exploration.
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.
Presidents of the Club
Beginning with the appointment of A. W. Greely as its first president in 1905, the Club’s Board of Directors appoints a new president, or reappoints the incumbent, at its Annual General Meeting.
First Class of Women Members
In 1981, women were admitted to The Explorers Club for the first time in the Club’s history.
Samples from the Collections
Research Collections is devoted to historical material, including information on Club members no longer living. View images of original documents by our charter members, or research the Club’s deceased members files.
Explorers Club Oral History
What does it mean to be an explorer? And what does it mean to join The Explorers Club? By preserving the stories of our members through interviews, we preserve the story of our institution as a whole.
Famous Firsts
For more than a century, members of the Club have traversed the earth, the seas, the skies, and even the moon, on expeditions of exploration. 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 our members.
South Pole - 1911 - Roald Amundsen
Summit of Mount Everest, World's Highest Peak - 1953 - Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay
Marianas Trench, Greatest Ocean Depth - 1960 - Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh
Surface of the Moon - 1969 - Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins
Summaries by the webmaster. Sources include: LIFE: The Greatest Adventures of All Time and Sir Edmund Hillary & the People of Everest, available from our Publications, as well as books and files of the Club's Research Collections.
