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When the Society dispatched geologist Israel C. Russell to explore Alaska in 1890 (top right), large parts of the planet were still virtually unknown. Today, more than 5,500 grants later, the Committee for Research and Exploration continues to send field scientists on expeditions, awarding four million dollars a year in grants.
From 1912 to 1915 the Committee funded expeditions led by Hiram Bingham to excavate Machu Picchu (bottom left), the mountaintop city of the Inca in Peru. In 1935 it backed U.S. Army Air Corps Capts. Albert W. Stevens and Orvil A. Anderson as they guided the stratospheric balloon Explorer II (bottom right) up to a record 72,395 feet (22,065 meters). And the Committee funded Matthew W. Stirlings 1938-46 expeditions that revealed 2,500-year-old colossal stone heads at sites of the Olmec (top left) in southern Mexico.
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