Luis Marden
Encyclopedia
Luis Marden (January 25, 1913 – March 3, 2003) was an American
photographer, explorer, writer, filmmaker, diver, navigator, and linguist who worked for National Geographic Magazine
. He worked as a photographer and reporter before serving as chief of the National Geographic foreign editorial staff. He was a pioneer in the use of color photography
, both on land and underwater, and also made many discoveries in the world of science.
His polymath
ic nature have led many to consider him the epitome of the "National Geographic man," the old-time adventurer who trekked to the edges of the globe in search of material for the magazine's longer articles. Though he had officially retired in 1976, Marden continued to write occasional stories long after. He wrote more than 60 articles for the magazine.
of Italian
heritage, Marden went by the name Louis Paragallo while growing up in nearby Quincy
. Marden was introduced to photography at a chemistry
class while attending Quincy Senior High School. Marden's interest was intense and lasting. In 1932, at the age of 19, he wrote a book called Color Photography with the Miniature Camera, which may be the first book ever published on 35mm color photography.
Marden began his career at a radio station in Boston
, where he had a photography program called "Camera Club of the Air." On his station manager's recommendation, he changed his name to Luis Marden, his new surname
a random selection from a phone book. He then worked as a freelance photographer for The Boston Herald.
His expertise in color photography subsequently brought him to National Geographic magazine, where he was officially hired on July 23, 1934. The magazine prided itself on publishing quality color photography, and Marden was making good use of a lightweight Leica, which could hang from a single neck strap. Marden successfully convinced the magazine to see the benefits of using the small 35mm cameras loaded with the new Kodachrome
film over the bulky cameras with tripod
s and glass plates
that were being used by the magazine's photographers at the time.
Marden's first assignment as a reporter was in the Yucatán Peninsula
. After sailing on a tramp steamer
, Marden explored the peninsula with a Model T Ford. He then acquired a mule
. He got decompression sickness
after diving in a holy Mayan
well
.
Marden died of complications from Parkinson's disease
, in Arlington, Virginia at the age of ninety.
, attempted to replot the route they believed Christopher Columbus
must have taken across the Atlantic. Though officially retired, Marden set sail from the Canary Islands
to retrace Columbus's voyage to the New World
. The Mardens concluded that Columbus made his first landfall -Columbus' "Guanahani"- at Samana Cay
, not at San Salvador Island
, also posited as Columbus' landfall, arguing that Columbus had actually landed much farther south than was initially believed.
s as well as Egyptian hieroglyphs
and later studied many others. His office is reported to have had stacks of dictionaries
and grammars in different languages, including Tahitian
, Fijian
, Latin
, Spanish
, French
, Italian
, Danish
, Arabic
, Tongan
, Turkish
, and Maori
.http://www.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0011/feature4/index.html Marden is cited as an authority in Webster's Third New International Dictionary for words such as "snick," "tot," and "sevillana."
, which led to his interest in bamboo
, of which finer fly rods are made. This love led him to the bamboo groves of China
's Kwangtung Province, thereby becoming, in 1974, the first National Geographic representative since the Communist Revolution
of 1949 to return to this country. Marden observed and photographed the cultivation and processing of Tonkin bamboo in its restricted growing area in southern China.
This assignment produced the article "Bamboo, The Giant Grass" (1980). "Raw material for implements of peace and war, this botanical cousin to rice
, corn
, and Kentucky bluegrass may be the world's most useful plant," Marden would write.http://www.rivercityiaido.com/old_photo_gallery.html Marden also recounted the under-the-table maneuverings he engaged in for entry to Maoist China.
Marden made his own bamboo fishing rods. In 1997, he published his second book, The Angler's Bamboo, which not only describes the cultivation and processing of Tonkin bamboo, but also traces the history of the split-bamboo fishing rod.http://www.seahorses.com/Fishing/1NewBambooRods.htm
and was knighted by the Italian
government.
), a house overlooking the Potomac
built by Frank Lloyd Wright
between 1952 and 1959. The spot had caught Marden's eye in 1944 when he and his wife and had been fishing for hickory shad
(Alosa mediocris) along the Potomac, near Chain Bridge
. After purchasing a plot of land, Marden continued the correspondence he had maintained with Wright since 1940, asking the architect to design a home for them. In 1938, Marden had seen a "dream house" in Life that Wright had designed for the typical American family.
It was not until 1952 that the designs from Wright finally came. The house is a flat-roofed, cinder-block
home trimmed in mahogany
that curves into the side of a hill; it comes to an abrupt point upriver, like the bow of a boat
. "Our beautiful house...stands proudly just under the brow of the hill, looking down always on the rushing water which constantly sings to it, day and night, winter and summer," Ethel wrote to Wright in 1959."http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/16/AR2005081601228_3.html
After Marden moved to a nursing home in 1998, the house was purchased and refurbished by Jim Kimsey
, co-founder of AOL
, in 2000 for $2.5 million.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
photographer, explorer, writer, filmmaker, diver, navigator, and linguist who worked for National Geographic Magazine
National Geographic Magazine
National Geographic, formerly the National Geographic Magazine, is the official journal of the National Geographic Society. It published its first issue in 1888, just nine months after the Society itself was founded...
. He worked as a photographer and reporter before serving as chief of the National Geographic foreign editorial staff. He was a pioneer in the use of color photography
Color photography
Color photography is photography that uses media capable of representing colors, which are traditionally produced chemically during the photographic processing phase...
, both on land and underwater, and also made many discoveries in the world of science.
His polymath
Polymath
A polymath is a person whose expertise spans a significant number of different subject areas. In less formal terms, a polymath may simply be someone who is very knowledgeable...
ic nature have led many to consider him the epitome of the "National Geographic man," the old-time adventurer who trekked to the edges of the globe in search of material for the magazine's longer articles. Though he had officially retired in 1976, Marden continued to write occasional stories long after. He wrote more than 60 articles for the magazine.
Background
Born in Chelsea, MassachusettsChelsea, Massachusetts
Chelsea is a city in Suffolk County, Massachusetts, United States directly across the Mystic River from the city of Boston. It is the smallest city in Massachusetts in land area, and the 26th most densely populated incorporated place in the country.-History:...
of Italian
Italian people
The Italian people are an ethnic group that share a common Italian culture, ancestry and speak the Italian language as a mother tongue. Within Italy, Italians are defined by citizenship, regardless of ancestry or country of residence , and are distinguished from people...
heritage, Marden went by the name Louis Paragallo while growing up in nearby Quincy
Quincy, Massachusetts
Quincy is a city in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. Its nicknames are "City of Presidents", "City of Legends", and "Birthplace of the American Dream". As a major part of Metropolitan Boston, Quincy is a member of Boston's Inner Core Committee for the Metropolitan Area Planning Council...
. Marden was introduced to photography at a chemistry
Chemistry
Chemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....
class while attending Quincy Senior High School. Marden's interest was intense and lasting. In 1932, at the age of 19, he wrote a book called Color Photography with the Miniature Camera, which may be the first book ever published on 35mm color photography.
Marden began his career at a radio station in Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
, where he had a photography program called "Camera Club of the Air." On his station manager's recommendation, he changed his name to Luis Marden, his new surname
Surname
A surname is a name added to a given name and is part of a personal name. In many cases, a surname is a family name. Many dictionaries define "surname" as a synonym of "family name"...
a random selection from a phone book. He then worked as a freelance photographer for The Boston Herald.
His expertise in color photography subsequently brought him to National Geographic magazine, where he was officially hired on July 23, 1934. The magazine prided itself on publishing quality color photography, and Marden was making good use of a lightweight Leica, which could hang from a single neck strap. Marden successfully convinced the magazine to see the benefits of using the small 35mm cameras loaded with the new Kodachrome
Kodachrome
Kodachrome is the trademarked brand name of a type of color reversal film that was manufactured by Eastman Kodak from 1935 to 2009.-Background:...
film over the bulky cameras with tripod
Tripod
A tripod is a portable three-legged frame, used as a platform for supporting the weight and maintaining the stability of some other object. The word comes from the Greek tripous, meaning "three feet". A tripod provides stability against downward forces, horizontal forces and moments about the...
s and glass plates
Photographic plate
Photographic plates preceded photographic film as a means of photography. A light-sensitive emulsion of silver salts was applied to a glass plate. This form of photographic material largely faded from the consumer market in the early years of the 20th century, as more convenient and less fragile...
that were being used by the magazine's photographers at the time.
Marden's first assignment as a reporter was in the Yucatán Peninsula
Yucatán Peninsula
The Yucatán Peninsula, in southeastern Mexico, separates the Caribbean Sea from the Gulf of Mexico, with the northern coastline on the Yucatán Channel...
. After sailing on a tramp steamer
Tramp steamer
A ship engaged in the tramp trade is one which does not have a fixed schedule or published ports of call. As opposed to freight liners, tramp ships trade on the spot market with no fixed schedule or itinerary/ports-of-call...
, Marden explored the peninsula with a Model T Ford. He then acquired a mule
Mule
A mule is the offspring of a male donkey and a female horse. Horses and donkeys are different species, with different numbers of chromosomes. Of the two F1 hybrids between these two species, a mule is easier to obtain than a hinny...
. He got decompression sickness
Decompression sickness
Decompression sickness describes a condition arising from dissolved gases coming out of solution into bubbles inside the body on depressurization...
after diving in a holy Mayan
Maya civilization
The Maya is a Mesoamerican civilization, noted for the only known fully developed written language of the pre-Columbian Americas, as well as for its art, architecture, and mathematical and astronomical systems. Initially established during the Pre-Classic period The Maya is a Mesoamerican...
well
Water well
A water well is an excavation or structure created in the ground by digging, driving, boring or drilling to access groundwater in underground aquifers. The well water is drawn by an electric submersible pump, a trash pump, a vertical turbine pump, a handpump or a mechanical pump...
.
Marden died of complications from Parkinson's disease
Parkinson's disease
Parkinson's disease is a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system...
, in Arlington, Virginia at the age of ninety.
Underwater photography and diving
- Marden's knowledge of SpanishSpanish languageSpanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
led to his appointment during World War IIWorld War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
as National Geographics "Latin America man," and Marden was sent on assignments throughout Central AmericaCentral AmericaCentral America is the central geographic region of the Americas. It is the southernmost, isthmian portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast. When considered part of the unified continental model, it is considered a subcontinent...
, South AmericaSouth AmericaSouth America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
, and the CaribbeanCaribbeanThe Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
. In 1941, he dove off AntiguaAntiguaAntigua , also known as Waladli, is an island in the West Indies, in the Leeward Islands in the Caribbean region, the main island of the country of Antigua and Barbuda. Antigua means "ancient" in Spanish and was named by Christopher Columbus after an icon in Seville Cathedral, Santa Maria de la...
, where he saw his first coral reefCoral reefCoral reefs are underwater structures made from calcium carbonate secreted by corals. Coral reefs are colonies of tiny living animals found in marine waters that contain few nutrients. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, which in turn consist of polyps that cluster in groups. The polyps...
.
- Deciding he wanted to photograph the riches of the deep, Marden worked with Jacques Cousteau aboard the CalypsoCalypso (ship)RV Calypso is a former British Royal Navy Minesweeper converted into a research vessel for the oceanographic researcher Jacques-Yves Cousteau, equipped with a mobile laboratory for underwater field research. She was severely damaged in 1996, and is undergoing a complete refurbishment in 2009-2011...
in the mid-1950s. A pioneer of underwater color photographyUnderwater photographyUnderwater photography is the process of taking photographs while under water. It is usually done while scuba diving, but can be done while snorkeling or swimming.-Overview:...
, Marden developed many techniques in this field that are still used today, such as the use of filters and auxiliary lighting in order to enhance color.
- Marden discovered the remains of Captain Bligh'sWilliam BlighVice Admiral William Bligh FRS RN was an officer of the British Royal Navy and a colonial administrator. A notorious mutiny occurred during his command of HMAV Bounty in 1789; Bligh and his loyal men made a remarkable voyage to Timor, after being set adrift in the Bounty's launch by the mutineers...
HMS BountyHMS BountyHMS Bounty , famous as the scene of the Mutiny on the Bounty on 28 April 1789, was originally a three-masted cargo ship, the Bethia, purchased by the British Admiralty, then modified and commissioned as His Majesty's Armed Vessel the...
in January 1957. After spotting a rudder from this ship in a museumMuseumA museum is an institution that cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, cultural, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Most large museums are located in major cities...
on FijiFijiFiji , officially the Republic of Fiji , is an island nation in Melanesia in the South Pacific Ocean about northeast of New Zealand's North Island...
, he persuaded his editors to let him dive off Pitcairn Island, where the rudder had been recovered. Despite the warnings of one islander -"Man, you gwen be dead as a hatchet!"http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/03/0303_030303_luismarden_2.html— Marden dove for several days in the dangerous swells near the island, and found the remains of the fabled ship. He subsequently met with Marlon BrandoMarlon BrandoMarlon Brando, Jr. was an American movie star and political activist. "Unchallenged as the most important actor in modern American Cinema" according to the St...
to counsel him on his role as Fletcher ChristianFletcher ChristianFletcher Christian was a master's mate on board the Bounty during William Bligh's fateful voyage to Tahiti for breadfruit plants...
in the 1962 film Mutiny on the BountyMutiny on the Bounty (1962 film)Mutiny on the Bounty is a 1962 film starring Marlon Brando and Trevor Howard based on the novel Mutiny on the Bounty by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall. The film retells the 1789 real-life mutiny aboard HMAV Bounty led by Fletcher Christian against the ship's captain, William Bligh...
. Later in life, when he stuck with his tailored English suits while his colleagues wore more casual attire, Marden wore also cuff links made of nails from the Bounty. MGM had a reconstruction of the Bounty built for their 1962 film, named the Bounty II. This vessel was built, of wood, to the original plans, in a traditional manner in a shipyardShipyardShipyards and dockyards are places which repair and build ships. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Dockyards are sometimes more associated with maintenance and basing activities than shipyards, which are sometimes associated more with initial...
in Lunenburg, Nova ScotiaLunenburg, Nova ScotiaLunenburg , is a Canadian port town in Lunenburg County, Nova Scotia.Situated on the province's South Shore, Lunenburg is located on a peninsula at the western side of Mahone Bay. The town is approximately 90 kilometres southwest of the county boundary with the Halifax Regional Municipality.The...
. However, all the dimensions were increased by approximately one third to accommodate the large cameras in use at that time.
- At the island of TofuaTofuaTofua Caldera, in Tonga, is the summit caldera of a steep-sided composite cone that forms Tofua Island. Tofua Island is in Tonga's Ha'apai island group. Pre-caldera activity is recorded by a sequence of pyroclastic deposits and lavas constituting the older cone, followed on the northern part of the...
(Bligh spelled it Tofoa), Bligh and eighteen loyalists had sought refuge in a cave in order to augment their meager provisions. In the March 1968 issue of the National Geographic MagazineNational Geographic MagazineNational Geographic, formerly the National Geographic Magazine, is the official journal of the National Geographic Society. It published its first issue in 1888, just nine months after the Society itself was founded...
, Marden claimed to have found this cave as well as the grave of John Norton, a crewman stoned to the death by the Tofuans. Both findings were later disproved by Bengt DanielssonBengt DanielssonBengt Emmerik Danielsson was an anthropologist and a crew member on the Kon-Tiki raft expedition from South America to French Polynesia in 1947. Danielsson was born in Sweden in 1921, obtained a Ph.D...
(who had been a member of the 1947 Kon-TikiKon-TikiKon-Tiki was the raft used by Norwegian explorer and writer Thor Heyerdahl in his 1947 expedition across the Pacific Ocean from South America to the Polynesian islands. It was named after the Inca sun god, Viracocha, for whom "Kon-Tiki" was said to be an old name...
expedition) in the June 1985 issue of the Pacific Islands Monthly. Danielsson identified Bligh's cave as lying on the sheltered north-west coast, where Bligh identified it; Marden's cave lies on the exposed south-east coast. Additionally, Danielsson thought it highly unlikely that the Tofuans would have allotted any grave site to Norton, or that the grave, if allotted, would have been preserved for two centuries.http://library.puc.edu/pitcairn/bounty/encyclopedia.shtml
- For the October 1985 story, "In Bounty’s Wake: Finding the Wreck of the HMS Pandora", Marden dove off the coast of Cape York PeninsulaCape York PeninsulaCape York Peninsula is a large remote peninsula located in Far North Queensland at the tip of the state of Queensland, Australia, the largest unspoilt wilderness in northern Australia and one of the last remaining wilderness areas on Earth...
, AustraliaAustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
in 1984 to cover the wreck of HMS PandoraHMS Pandora (1779)HMS Pandora was a 24-gun Porcupine-class sixth-rate post ship of the Royal Navy launched in May 1779. She is best known as the ship sent in 1790 to search for the Bounty and the mutineers who had taken her...
, the ship sent to capture the Bounty mutineers. The Pandora had foundered on an Australian reef with manacled prisoners still inside a deckhouse cell.http://pandora.mtq.qld.gov.au/?page=63
Marden and the Guanahani Debate
In 1986, Marden and his wife Ethel Cox Marden, who was trained as a mathematicianMathematician
A mathematician is a person whose primary area of study is the field of mathematics. Mathematicians are concerned with quantity, structure, space, and change....
, attempted to replot the route they believed Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus was an explorer, colonizer, and navigator, born in the Republic of Genoa, in northwestern Italy. Under the auspices of the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, he completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean that led to general European awareness of the American continents in the...
must have taken across the Atlantic. Though officially retired, Marden set sail from the Canary Islands
Canary Islands
The Canary Islands , also known as the Canaries , is a Spanish archipelago located just off the northwest coast of mainland Africa, 100 km west of the border between Morocco and the Western Sahara. The Canaries are a Spanish autonomous community and an outermost region of the European Union...
to retrace Columbus's voyage to the New World
New World
The New World is one of the names used for the Western Hemisphere, specifically America and sometimes Oceania . The term originated in the late 15th century, when America had been recently discovered by European explorers, expanding the geographical horizon of the people of the European middle...
. The Mardens concluded that Columbus made his first landfall -Columbus' "Guanahani"- at Samana Cay
Samana Cay
Samana Cay is the largest now uninhabited island in the Bahamas, believed by some researchers to have been the location of Columbus's first landfall in the Americas, on October 12, 1492....
, not at San Salvador Island
San Salvador Island
San Salvador Island, also known as Watlings Island, is an island and district of the Bahamas. Until 1986, when the National Geographic Society suggested Samana Cay, it was widely believed that during his first expedition to the New World, San Salvador Island was the first land sighted and visited...
, also posited as Columbus' landfall, arguing that Columbus had actually landed much farther south than was initially believed.
Activities as a linguist
As a teenager, Marden had taught himself at least five languageLanguage
Language may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication...
s as well as Egyptian hieroglyphs
Egyptian hieroglyphs
Egyptian hieroglyphs were a formal writing system used by the ancient Egyptians that combined logographic and alphabetic elements. Egyptians used cursive hieroglyphs for religious literature on papyrus and wood...
and later studied many others. His office is reported to have had stacks of dictionaries
Dictionary
A dictionary is a collection of words in one or more specific languages, often listed alphabetically, with usage information, definitions, etymologies, phonetics, pronunciations, and other information; or a book of words in one language with their equivalents in another, also known as a lexicon...
and grammars in different languages, including Tahitian
Tahitian language
Tahitian is an indigenous language spoken mainly in the Society Islands in French Polynesia. It is an Eastern Polynesian language closely related to the other indigenous languages spoken in French Polynesia: Marquesan, Tuamotuan, Mangarevan, and Austral Islands languages...
, Fijian
Fijian language
Fijian is an Austronesian language of the Malayo-Polynesian family spoken in Fiji. It has 450,000 first-language speakers, which is less than half the population of Fiji, but another 200,000 speak it as a second language...
, Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
, Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
, French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
, Danish
Danish language
Danish is a North Germanic language spoken by around six million people, principally in the country of Denmark. It is also spoken by 50,000 Germans of Danish ethnicity in the northern parts of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, where it holds the status of minority language...
, Arabic
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
, Tongan
Tongan language
Tongan is an Austronesian language spoken in Tonga. It has around 200,000 speakers and is a national language of Tonga. It is a VSO language.-Related languages:...
, Turkish
Turkish language
Turkish is a language spoken as a native language by over 83 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Northern Cyprus with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo,...
, and Maori
Maori language
Māori or te reo Māori , commonly te reo , is the language of the indigenous population of New Zealand, the Māori. It has the status of an official language in New Zealand...
.http://www.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0011/feature4/index.html Marden is cited as an authority in Webster's Third New International Dictionary for words such as "snick," "tot," and "sevillana."
Fly-rods and bamboo
Marden was an avid fly-fishermanFly fishing
Fly fishing is an angling method in which an artificial 'fly' is used to catch fish. The fly is cast using a fly rod, reel, and specialized weighted line. Casting a nearly weightless fly or 'lure' requires casting techniques significantly different from other forms of casting...
, which led to his interest in bamboo
Bamboo
Bamboo is a group of perennial evergreens in the true grass family Poaceae, subfamily Bambusoideae, tribe Bambuseae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family....
, of which finer fly rods are made. This love led him to the bamboo groves of China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
's Kwangtung Province, thereby becoming, in 1974, the first National Geographic representative since the Communist Revolution
Chinese Civil War
The Chinese Civil War was a civil war fought between the Kuomintang , the governing party of the Republic of China, and the Communist Party of China , for the control of China which eventually led to China's division into two Chinas, Republic of China and People's Republic of...
of 1949 to return to this country. Marden observed and photographed the cultivation and processing of Tonkin bamboo in its restricted growing area in southern China.
This assignment produced the article "Bamboo, The Giant Grass" (1980). "Raw material for implements of peace and war, this botanical cousin to rice
Rice
Rice is the seed of the monocot plants Oryza sativa or Oryza glaberrima . As a cereal grain, it is the most important staple food for a large part of the world's human population, especially in East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and the West Indies...
, corn
Maize
Maize known in many English-speaking countries as corn or mielie/mealie, is a grain domesticated by indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica in prehistoric times. The leafy stalk produces ears which contain seeds called kernels. Though technically a grain, maize kernels are used in cooking as a vegetable...
, and Kentucky bluegrass may be the world's most useful plant," Marden would write.http://www.rivercityiaido.com/old_photo_gallery.html Marden also recounted the under-the-table maneuverings he engaged in for entry to Maoist China.
Marden made his own bamboo fishing rods. In 1997, he published his second book, The Angler's Bamboo, which not only describes the cultivation and processing of Tonkin bamboo, but also traces the history of the split-bamboo fishing rod.http://www.seahorses.com/Fishing/1NewBambooRods.htm
Other activities
- Marden worked for NASANASAThe National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
for a time, taking innovative photographs of rocket launchRocket launchA rocket launch is the takeoff phase of the flight of a rocket. Launches for orbital spaceflights, or launches into interplanetary space, are usually from a fixed location on the ground, but may also be from a floating platform such as the San Marco platform, or the Sea Launch launch...
es and the activities of the Project MercuryProject MercuryIn January 1960 NASA awarded Western Electric Company a contract for the Mercury tracking network. The value of the contract was over $33 million. Also in January, McDonnell delivered the first production-type Mercury spacecraft, less than a year after award of the formal contract. On February 12,...
astronauts.
- He was a founding member of the Sea Research SocietySea Research SocietyThe Sea Research Society is a non-profit educational research organization founded in 1972. Its general purpose is to promote scientific and educational endeavors in any of the marine sciences or marine histories with the goal of obtaining knowledge for the ultimate benefit to mankind...
and served on its Board of Advisors and in 1972 participated in the creation of the research/professional degree of Doctor of Marine Histories.
- He also made eleven travelogue filmsTravel literatureTravel literature is travel writing of literary value. Travel literature typically records the experiences of an author touring a place for the pleasure of travel. An individual work is sometimes called a travelogue or itinerary. Travel literature may be cross-cultural or transnational in focus, or...
for the Society's lecture series.
- In the early 1990s, he flew ultralight aircraft. Marden owned and piloted a Quicksilver MX from Whitman's Strip, a small airport in the Virginia countryside.
Friendships and honors
Marden served as chief of the National Geographic foreign editorial staff, in which capacity he met and maintained friendships with King Hussein of Jordan and the King of TongaTaufa'ahau Tupou IV
Tāufaāhau Tupou IV, King of Tonga, GCMG, GCVO, KBE, KStJ son of Queen Sālote Tupou III and her consort Prince Viliami Tungī Mailefihi, was the king of Tonga from the death of his mother in 1965 until his own death in 2006...
and was knighted by the Italian
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
government.
The Marden House
Marden and his wife, Ethel Cox Marden, lived in "Fontinalis" (also known as Marden HouseMarden House
The Marden House is a residence in McLean, Virginia designed by American architect Frank Lloyd Wright. It is located just off Chain Bridge Road and overlooks the Potomac River. Also known as "Fontinalis," it is named after Luis Marden , a writer, photographer, and explorer for National Geographic...
), a house overlooking the Potomac
Potomac
-Places in the United States:Washington, D.C. area:*The Potomac River, which flows through West Virginia, Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, DC**The Potomac Highlands of West Virginia, a region of the Potomac River's watershed in West Virginia...
built by Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright was an American architect, interior designer, writer and educator, who designed more than 1,000 structures and completed 500 works. Wright believed in designing structures which were in harmony with humanity and its environment, a philosophy he called organic architecture...
between 1952 and 1959. The spot had caught Marden's eye in 1944 when he and his wife and had been fishing for hickory shad
Shad
The shads or river herrings comprise the genus Alosa, fish related to herring in the family Clupeidae. They are distinct from others in that family by having a deeper body and spawning in rivers. The several species frequent different areas on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean Sea....
(Alosa mediocris) along the Potomac, near Chain Bridge
Chain Bridge (Washington, D.C.)
The Chain Bridge is a viaduct which crosses the Potomac River at Little Falls in Washington, D.C. It carries close to 22,000 cars a day. It connects Washington with affluent sections of Arlington and Fairfax counties in Virginia. On the Washington side, the bridge connects with Canal Road...
. After purchasing a plot of land, Marden continued the correspondence he had maintained with Wright since 1940, asking the architect to design a home for them. In 1938, Marden had seen a "dream house" in Life that Wright had designed for the typical American family.
It was not until 1952 that the designs from Wright finally came. The house is a flat-roofed, cinder-block
Cinder block
In the United States, a concrete masonry unit – also called concrete block, cement block, and foundation block – is a large rectangular brick used in construction. Concrete blocks are made from cast concrete, i.e. Portland cement and aggregate, usually sand and fine gravel for high-density blocks...
home trimmed in mahogany
Mahogany
The name mahogany is used when referring to numerous varieties of dark-colored hardwood. It is a native American word originally used for the wood of the species Swietenia mahagoni, known as West Indian or Cuban mahogany....
that curves into the side of a hill; it comes to an abrupt point upriver, like the bow of a boat
Bow (ship)
The bow is a nautical term that refers to the forward part of the hull of a ship or boat, the point that is most forward when the vessel is underway. Both of the adjectives fore and forward mean towards the bow...
. "Our beautiful house...stands proudly just under the brow of the hill, looking down always on the rushing water which constantly sings to it, day and night, winter and summer," Ethel wrote to Wright in 1959."http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/16/AR2005081601228_3.html
After Marden moved to a nursing home in 1998, the house was purchased and refurbished by Jim Kimsey
Jim Kimsey
James V. "Jim" Kimsey was the co-founder, CEO, and first chairman of internet service provider America Online .-Early life:...
, co-founder of AOL
AOL
AOL Inc. is an American global Internet services and media company. AOL is headquartered at 770 Broadway in New York. Founded in 1983 as Control Video Corporation, it has franchised its services to companies in several nations around the world or set up international versions of its services...
, in 2000 for $2.5 million.
Discoveries
- The National Geographic SocietyNational Geographic SocietyThe National Geographic Society , headquartered in Washington, D.C. in the United States, is one of the largest non-profit scientific and educational institutions in the world. Its interests include geography, archaeology and natural science, the promotion of environmental and historical...
in Washington holds a specimen of an AepyornisAepyornisAepyornis is a genus of aepyornithid, one of two genera of ratite birds endemic to Madagascar known as elephant birds. This animal was the world's largest bird until its extinction, about 1000 years ago.-Description:...
egg which was discovered by Marden in 1967 in MadagascarMadagascarThe Republic of Madagascar is an island country located in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa...
. The specimen is intact and contains an embryonic skeleton of the unborn bird.
- Discovered the orchid Epistephium mardenii in BrazilBrazilBrazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
. Described in Marden's April 1971 article on orchids, "The Exquisite Orchids." The name is actually a synonym for Epistephium duckei.http://sobralia.autrevie.com/Epistephium_TheGenus.html
- Discovered a deep-water lobsterLobsterClawed lobsters comprise a family of large marine crustaceans. Highly prized as seafood, lobsters are economically important, and are often one of the most profitable commodities in coastal areas they populate.Though several groups of crustaceans are known as lobsters, the clawed lobsters are most...
parasite deep in the Atlantic that was a new species of crustaceanCrustaceanCrustaceans form a very large group of arthropods, usually treated as a subphylum, which includes such familiar animals as crabs, lobsters, crayfish, shrimp, krill and barnacles. The 50,000 described species range in size from Stygotantulus stocki at , to the Japanese spider crab with a leg span...
, later called Dolobrotus mardeniDolobrotus mardeniSchraderia mardeni is a species of amphipod in the family Pontogeneiidae. It was originally described as Dolobrotus mardeni, and was the only species in the genus Dolobrotus, but that genus is now considered a synonym of Schraderia...
(AmphipodaAmphipodaAmphipoda is an order of malacostracan crustaceans with no carapace and generally with laterally compressed bodies. The name amphipoda means "different-footed", and refers to the different forms of appendages, unlike isopods, where all the legs are alike. Of the 7,000 species, 5,500 are classified...
order, GammarideaGammarideaGammaridea is a suborder of small, shrimp-like crustaceans in the order Amphipoda. It contains about 7,275 of the 7,900 described species of amphipods, in approximately 1,000 genera, divided among around 125 families. Gammaridea includes almost all freshwater amphipods , as well as many marine...
suborder, EusiridaeEusiridaeEusiridae is a family of amphipods. It contains the following genera:*Cleonardo Stebbing, 1888*Eusirella Chevreux, 1908*Eusirogenes Stebbing, 1904*Eusiropsis Stebbing, 1897*Eusirus Krøyer, 1845*Harcledo J. L. Barnard, 1964...
family).http://www.deh.gov.au/cgi-bin/abrs/fauna/details.pl?pstrVol=PERACARIDA;pstrTaxa=312;pstrChecklistMode=2
- His reporting of a sea anemoneSea anemoneSea anemones are a group of water-dwelling, predatory animals of the order Actiniaria; they are named after the anemone, a terrestrial flower. Sea anemones are classified in the phylum Cnidaria, class Anthozoa, subclass Zoantharia. Anthozoa often have large polyps that allow for digestion of larger...
in the Red SeaRed SeaThe Red Sea is a seawater inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. The connection to the ocean is in the south through the Bab el Mandeb strait and the Gulf of Aden. In the north, there is the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and the Gulf of Suez...
flashing different colors became the first published report of submarine or underwater fluorescence.http://www.nightsea.com/history.htm
Named after Marden
- The orchid species Epistephium mardenii
- The sea flea Dolobrotus mardeniDolobrotus mardeniSchraderia mardeni is a species of amphipod in the family Pontogeneiidae. It was originally described as Dolobrotus mardeni, and was the only species in the genus Dolobrotus, but that genus is now considered a synonym of Schraderia...