Joseph Judge (February 4, 1928—April 20, 1996) was a writer and editor for ''
National Geographic'' magazine, retiring as Senior Associate Editor in 1990 after 25 years of service.
Early life
Judge was born in Washington, D.C. His parents were
Joe Judge, the baseball player, and Alma Gauvreau Judge. He attended
Gonzaga College High School and then
The Catholic University of America, graduating in 1950. He served in the
United States Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, ...
and subsequently worked for ''
Life
Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energy ...
'' magazine in New York.
He married Phyllis Mitchell of
Scituate, Massachusetts in 1956.
Government career
Judge returned to Washington to work as a special assistant at the
United States Department of Labor, working in the
Eisenhower and
Kennedy administrations.
''National Geographic'' career
As a writer for ''National Geographic'', Judge wrote articles on
Monticello (Thomas Jefferson's home);
Williamsburg;
Washington, D.C.;
Boston, Massachusetts;
; Florence, Italy; South Africa;
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...
and many other places.
During his tenure as Senior Associate Editor (1985–1990), Judge was noted for taking on controversial topics, including disputes about the discovery of America and the discovery of the North Pole. Under his leadership, the magazine also made efforts to attract a younger and more urbanized audience. Judge was ousted from ''National Geographic'' in April 1990 (along with many other members of the editorial staff, including editor Wilbur E. Garrett) as
Gilbert M. Grosvenor
Gilbert Melville Grosvenor (born May 5, 1931) is the former president and chairman of the National Geographic Society, who previously served as the editor of ''National Geographic'' magazine.Lanken, Dane. "The bee in Grosvenor's bonnet", ''Canadia ...
, grandson of one of the Society's founders, took personal charge of the magazine.
In November 1986, after five years of research, Judge wrote and published ''Columbus's First Landfall in the New World'' which advocated
Samana Cay in the
Bahamas
The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to 88% of the a ...
as the true location of
Guanahani
Guanahaní is an island in the Bahamas that was the first land in the New World sighted and visited by Christopher Columbus' first voyage, on 12 October 1492. It is a bean-shaped island that Columbus changed from its native Taíno name to San ...
, the first island seen by
Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus
* lij, Cristoffa C(or)ombo
* es, link=no, Cristóbal Colón
* pt, Cristóvão Colombo
* ca, Cristòfor (or )
* la, Christophorus Columbus. (; born between 25 August and 31 October 1451, died 20 May 1506) was a ...
on his first voyage to America. (This idea had first been proposed by
Gustavus Fox
Gustavus Vasa Fox (June 13, 1821 – October 29, 1883) was an officer of the United States Navy, who served during the Mexican–American War, and as Assistant Secretary of the Navy during the Civil War.
Life and career
Fox was born at Saugus, M ...
in 1882). Prior to that time, official
National Geographic Society
The National Geographic Society (NGS), headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States, is one of the largest non-profit scientific and educational organizations in the world.
Founded in 1888, its interests include geography, archaeology, ...
maps had shown
San Salvador Island
San Salvador Island (known as Watling's Island from the 1680s until 1925) is an island and district of The Bahamas. It is widely believed that during Christopher Columbus's first expedition to the New World, this island was the first land he ...
as the first landfall. While Judge's theory attracted some support, and drew attention to the many shortcomings of
San Salvador, the issue remains unsettled.
In 1983,
CBS television had aired "The Race to the Pole," a docudrama about
Dr. Frederick Cook and his alleged trip to the North Pole in 1908—a claim that was widely discredited at the time, but treated approvingly by CBS. Shortly afterward, the family of
Robert E. Peary, Cook's rival, appealed to the National Geographic Society for help in restoring Peary's reputation. Significantly, the family offered to open Peary's personal papers, which contained many items unseen by historians, to help settle the issue. Judge hired noted polar explorer
Wally Herbert to review the evidence. When Herbert's evaluation appeared—significantly placed in the Magazine's 100th anniversary issue of September 1988—he concluded that although Peary came close to the Pole, he did not actually reach it. Herbert's view is today shared by many polar historians.
But the magazine quickly backtracked from Herbert's position, apparently under pressure. Within months, National Geographic Society had hired another group of experts, the
Navigation Foundation
Navigation is a field of study that focuses on the process of monitoring and controlling the movement of a craft or vehicle from one place to another.Bowditch, 2003:799. The field of navigation includes four general categories: land navigation, ...
under the leadership of
Adm. William Davies, to make yet another review of the evidence. In January 1990, the magazine published Davies' findings, based on analysis of shadows seen on photographs taken by Peary in 1909. Davies' analysis vindicated Peary, and the official stamp of approval on the ''National Geographics reversal of position was given by no less than the Society's president
Gilbert M. Grosvenor
Gilbert Melville Grosvenor (born May 5, 1931) is the former president and chairman of the National Geographic Society, who previously served as the editor of ''National Geographic'' magazine.Lanken, Dane. "The bee in Grosvenor's bonnet", ''Canadia ...
, in a signed letter appearing in the pages of the magazine. This incident could not have been beneficial for the editorial staff; Judge and a dozen other senior staffers were let go from ''National Geographic'' magazine on April 17, 1990 after what was officially described as several months of dispute over editorial content.
Other works and retirement
Following his retirement from ''National Geographic'', Judge was the author of ''Season of Fire: The Confederate Strike on Washington'' (Rockbridge, 1994), about the exploits of
Gen. Jubal A. Early, who twice led his troops to the capital gates in 1864. He also authored a book of poetry about life in Alaska called ''Toughing it Out''. Judge remained interested in the
Columbus landfall problem until the end of his life. His papers concerning this topic were donated to the
Mariners' Museum in Virginia.
His son,
Mark Judge, also became a journalist, and wrote a book called ''
God and Man at Georgetown Prep: How I Became a Catholic Despite 20 Years of Catholic Schooling'',
describing how his father's Catholicism helped him regain his faith later in life. Another son, Joseph Mitchell Judge, is curator of the
Hampton Roads Naval Museum.
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Judge, Joseph
American magazine writers
American magazine editors
1929 births
1996 deaths
Military personnel from Washington, D.C.
Writers from Washington, D.C.
20th-century American historians
20th-century American male writers
Gonzaga College High School alumni
Catholic University of America alumni
American male non-fiction writers