Pulp Age: THE EXPLORERS CLUB (1923)

THE EXPLORERS CLUB (ORGANIZATION)

The Explorers Club is an American-based international multidisciplinary professional society with the goal of promoting scientific exploration and field study. The club was founded in New York City in 1905, and has served as a meeting point for explorers and scientists worldwide. The Explorers Club originally met at the request of noted journalist, historian, and explorer 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. The Explorers Club was incorporated on October 25, 1905 and has chapters around the globe and one on Mars and one on Venus.

The Explorers Club’s New York chapter holds regular meetings in its current headquarters on the Upper East Side, a six-story Jacobean revival mansion on East 70th Street, where it houses its extensive collection of artifacts, trophies and specimens. Also on the premises is the Frank Reade Exploration Library, the Professor George Edward Challenger Map Room, Patrick Burlingame Botanical garden and many laboratories and classrooms for use by its members. The building was purchased in 1919 from the estate of Stephen C. Clark (who was killed in a Martian Gas attack in 1901). Since then expansion and remodeling has been underway.

Chapter Houses: New York (main HQ), Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, San Diego, St Louis, Hawaii (Owahu), London, Cairo, Johannesburg, Piedmont, Istanbul, Sari City (Pellucidar Confederacy), Erotia (Venus) and Zodanga (Mars). 

Prominent Members

David Legge Brainard (1856–Present): U.S. Army Lieutenant-Colonel: Sioux, Bannock, and Nez Perce Campaigns; Survivor, Lady Franklin Bay Expedition (1881–1884); in 1882 claimed Farthest North at 83º24’30” North latitude
Patrick Burlingame (1860-???): British explorer. Biologist and Chief Botanist to the first exploratory mission to Venus (1901); leader of the Mountains of Eternity expedition (1914).
Frank Chapman (1864–Present): Curator of Birds, Dinosaurs and Mammals, American Museum of Natural History.
Frederick Cook (1865–Present): Surgeon and ethnologist to the first Peary Expedition to Greenland (1892); leader of the SS Miranda Expedition (1894); surgeon on the Belgica Expedition (1897–1898), the first ship to winter over in the Antarctic; founding member of the American Alpine Club (1902)
William Dyer (1875-Present): Professor of Geology, Miskatonic University; mountaineer; author; founding member of the Pelucidar Mountaineers Club (1915).
Gullivar Jones (1876-???): U.S. Navy Lieutenant: Spanish–American War, Battle of Manila Bay and Santiago de Cuba. Lost in 1911 during the Mars expedition (1912). Whereabouts unknown.
Herschel Clifford Parker (1867–Present): Professor of Physics, Columbia University; mountaineer; author; founding member of the American Alpine Club (1902)
Frank Reade Jr., (1862-present): U.S. Inventor-hero and owner of Readeworks. Inventor of airships, submersibles, weapons, electrical land vehicles, and automatons.
Marshall Howard Saville (1867–Present): Professor of American Archaeology, Columbia University; Curator of Archaeology, American Museum of Natural History
Henry Collins Walsh (1863– Present): Journalist; historian; explorer of Central America, Greenland and Venus; founding member of Arctic Club of America (1894); and founding member of the Arctic Club of Venus (1910); nominal "Founder" of The Explorers Club (1904)
Caspar Whitney (1862– Present): War correspondent, explorer of North and South America, outdoorsman, sports journalist, member of the International Olympic Committee (1900–1905), author; Editor, Outing magazine.

Famous firsts

The Explorers Club is renowned for a series of "famous firsts" accomplished by its members, including:

First to catalogue native life on Venus (1901) – Patrick Burlingame

First to the North Pole of Venus (1909) – Robert E. Peary & Matthew Henson

First to discover South Pole entrance to the Hollow Earth (1911) – Roald Amundsen & William Dyer

First solo flight to the Moon (1912) – Cyrus P. Hackenbacker

First to explore the Dead World of Pellucidar (1919) – Frank Chapman

FOR PLAYER CHARACTERS
Members of the Explorers Club are men (and women) of action, but also of purpose. Not all are academics, but all are dedicated to discovery and adventure. Players characters can come from any kind of background, but all must be dedicated to new discoveries, whatever their motivation.