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Washington Group

Visit our website: http://explorersclubdc.org/

The first known indication of a Washington, DC area group was a 1924 Explorers Club news note recording an “excellent lecture program being conducted in Washington, DC”.

In 1937, active members of The Explorers Club living in the Washington, DC area established The Explorers Club Washington Round Table Group (subsequently shortened to Explorers Club Washington Group or ECWG), led by Col. H.T. Cowling, U.S. Army Air Corps, a student of Tibetan culture. About 20 members met monthly at the Cosmos Club or the Army-Navy Club. Thus originated The Explorers Club’s first group outside New York City. ECWG remains the Club’s largest chapter, representing about nine percent of total Club membership.

Edward L. Sweeney, for whom the Club’s Sweeney Medal is named, was an early ECWG member and was largely responsible for the Club’s expansion nationally and internationally. He was Club president (1965-1967) when voting rights were extended to “out-of-New York” members provided they attend the annual business meeting in New York City. A few years later all members received the right to vote by mail. In 1993, with specific encouragement from ECWG, a vice president for chapters was added to the three vice presidencies established in 1904. Sweeney also hosted one-day “Bombashes” at his Gibson Island, Maryland estate--more a crab and oyster feast than our present-day annual weekend outing bearing the same name.

ECWG has a monthly program of dinner and luncheon lectures and special events. Our growing educational outreach program was augmented in 1990 by an exploration-oriented course in the Campus-on-the-Mall of the Smithsonian Institution. In 1997, we instituted a grant program (ECWG Exploration and Field Research Grant Program) at the university post-graduate level for applicants enrolled in institutions in our ECWG geographic area. In 1990 ECWG was granted 501(c) (3) status by the IRS, and in 1994 the ECWG became incorporated in Delaware.

Membership in the ECWG requires active Explorers Club membership and residence in DC, Maryland, Virginia, or West Virginia.

Browse our list of videotaped lectures on exploration, available to members and the general public.

For information, contact:

Jay Kaplan
2312 California Street, NW
Washington, DC 20008
Tel: 202 462 1970
Eml: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

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