Beauty rediscovered: The dazzling never-before-seen images discovered in the depths of the National Geographic archives released to celebrate the magazine's 125th anniversary


National Geographic has earned a reputation as the epicenter of some of the world’s finest photojournalism, but few people known that the renowned magazine also has built up a vast collection of unpublished breathtaking images over the years.

To mark the magazine’s 125th birthday this year, its editors launched a Tumblr account to highlight some of the hidden gems that for one reason or another have been lingering in its photographic vaults.



The project aptly named ‘FOUND’ is NatGeo’s photostream, culled from its sprawling treasury of unpublished vintage prints.

Dreamscape: A replica of the Mayflower sails into New York Harbor with a welcoming fleet, November 1957

Otherworldly beauty: Buckets of iron ore are transported to a major steelworks in Hunedoara, Romania, November 1975

Horsing around: This 1957 print of teenagers running and playing on large white sand dunes in New Mexico ended up in National Geographic's vast collection of unpublished photos

Among the previously unreleased photos are some true masterpieces, like the otherworldly sight of the Mayflower replica sailing into 1950s New York under the shadow of a zeppelin overhead, or the simple beauty of buckets of iron being transported to a steelworks in Romania in 1975 set against the dreamlike background of golden clouds fit for a Canaletto painting.



Other prints in the photographic backlog include a whimsical shot of women in 1960s London using compact mirrors to catch a glimpse of Queen Elizabeth II, and a print showing a group of teens horsing around on a sand dune in New Mexico back in the 50s.



The curator of the Tumblr account, young NatGeo designer Web Barr, explained that he chose this medium to release the once-forgotten images into the world in the hopes that a broad audience of people will be able to enjoy, appreciate and share them with others.



Barr compared the FOUND Tumblr to NatGeo’s Instagram account, which photographers working for the magazine use to upload pictures from the field.



To put the project together, Barr and a team of NatGeo staffers sifted through the magazine’s 11.5 million collection of prints, searching for unique, visually striking and slightly offbeat images that are in keeping with the magazine’s overall aesthetic.

Royal treatment: Women use compact mirrors in packed crowd to catch sight of Queen Elizabeth II in London, June 1966

Rustic: A man feeds donkey sulla flowers and foliage from its own load near Gangi, Sicily, Italy, January 1955

After spending decades collecting dust in the storage, many of the forgotten prints lack even the most basic information, so the team behind FOUND are hoping to harness the power of the masses to fill those gaps.

