 Some Society board members thought that photos were so lowbrow that in 1906, after the magazine published Shiras's pioneering shots, two board members resigned in disgust.But Society president Alexander Graham Bell and magazine editor Gilbert H. Grosvenor embraced the use of photos, which ever since have been at the core of the magazine's identity and mission.As early 20th-century explorers and contributors traveled the world, they made images or purchased them from local sources and brought them to National Geographic.