N. Geographic’s Wondrous Years Shown in Exhibit

You’ll find them in almost every garage, stashed between the rusty garden tools and the old bowling trophies: chronicles of our planet’s religions, political upheavals, tragedies and triumphs, all neatly stacked according to date and tucked into crumbling cardboard boxes.

Literally and figuratively, the National Geographic magazine has staying power. Founded in 1888 by a covey of Washington’s most influential folk, the National Geographic Society was established to facilitate “the increase and diffusion of geographical knowledge,” and has since become the world’s largest nonprofit scientific and educational institution. The society celebrates a century-plus of achievement in “National Geographic Society: 100 Years of Adventure and Discovery,” a traveling exhibit on view through Nov. 11 at the Fullerton Museum Center.

A product of the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES), the show features 161 color and black-and-white photographs that trace the society’s work through the years, from its backing of Commander Peary’s exploration of the North Pole to its ongoing funding of global conservation programs. Fullerton Museum exhibition administrator Lynn LaBate has supplemented the photos with artifacts from the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana and vintage cameras from the California Museum of Photography at UC Riverside, many of them similar to those used by early National Geographic photographers. In addition, on Nov. 3, the museum will present a program of international stories for grade-school children, and on Nov. 2 and 9, evenings of Andean folk tunes and Brazilian contemporary popular music. There is an additional charge for these events.

In the museum’s video room, some of the society’s most popular television documentaries will run through the end of the show. Included are “National Parks: Playground or Paradise?” (through Saturday), “Bali, Masterpieces of the Gods” (Oct. 28 through Nov. 3) and “African Wildlife” (Nov. 4 through 11).

Of course, the society has been bringing remote corners of the world into our living rooms long before the advent of television. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, the group was instrumental in the exploration of the poles, as well as southern Alaska and Canada. Chronicled in murky black-and-white photos are the struggles of Commander Peary and his party as they tackled huge snowdrifts on their first expedition to the North Pole, and the first flight over the South Pole by Commander Richard Byrd, which was funded by society grants in 1928-30. To date, the National Geographic Society has funded more than 3,300 research projects worldwide.

Through the magazine, the society has helped readers keep pace with these advancements. The first issue, printed in October, 1888, was a highly technical journal sent to 165 members. Photographs first appeared in 1910, and in 1920, the now-familiar yellow border became standard on each cover. Today, the magazine reaches an estimated 40 million people.

Along the way, magazine readers have followed the group’s wildlife preservation efforts, noted in the show by a large photo of African elephants resting in Namibia’s Estoshe National Park; they’ve sighed over the wreckage of 100 natural disasters, detailed here with dramatic shots of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and an aerial view of Mt. St. Helen’s, one year after its 1980 eruption. They’ve traveled vicariously on far-flung expeditions, such as the 1920s trip to Chinese and Tibetan borderlands, captured here in a tranquil shot of a Tibetan holy man calling his brother monks to prayer. Adventures into the greatest heights and depths are recalled with photographs of U.S. space travel and of the 1985 discovery of the ill-fated Titanic.

The society’s pioneering use of photography is outlined as well, ranging from a moody 1916 shot using Lumiere autochrome, the first commercial color photo process, to a series of holograms from the mid-1980s. Vintage cameras on view include a 1927 Tropice, a wood-and-metal model suitable for use in tropical climates, and a Revolving Back Auto Graflex, popular among traveling photographers between 1904 and 1940.

But the most powerful photographs in the show can be found in two large photo montages in the museum’s smaller gallery. Images here range from a 1968 shot of a Vietnamese mother pleading for her sick child, to a 1915 photo of an Ifugao headhunter showing off his latest prize. A chilling 1922 shot shows a Mongolian woman locked in a small wooden box, sentenced to die of starvation.

The Fullerton Museum Center, 301 N. Pomona Ave., presents “National Geographic Society: 100 Years of Adventure and Discovery,” an exhibit of 161 color and black-and-white photographs, through Nov. 11. Museum hours are Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., Thursday and Friday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Admission: $1 to $2; free to children under 12 and to all visitors between 6 and 9 p.m. on Thursdays. Information: (714) 738-6545.