By the time I first read it as a kid, it was solidly known as an old (1800s) and well-established geographic/scientific magazine which tried to deliver its content and messages with great photography. One solid family, the Grosvenors, was prominent in the leadership during all of the 50 or so years I read it.
As with so many fine establishments serving excellent purposes, the succeeding generations of leadership/ownership diluted and polluted the fundamental purposes. Just more of the same stuff we are seeing so regularly.
