Harrison Jacobs/Business Insider; Reuters
- The Explorers Club is an ultra-elite club in New York that serves as a meeting place for explorers, scientists, and the moneyed-elite who fund expeditions.
- Its members include astronaut Buzz Aldrin, President Teddy Roosevelt, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, and film director James Cameron.
- The Manhattan clubhouse is filled with priceless artifacts and ancient documents.
World history is full of secret clubs with elite members, like the Freemasons and the Illuminati. Shrouded in mystery, these clubs become the stuff of legend.
In a lavish Upper Manhattan townhouse lies the headquarters of a legendary, though far less secretive society — The Explorers Club.
Founded in 1904, The Explorers Club is a professional society that serves as a meeting place for explorers, scientists, and just about anyone with an interest in scientific exploration. The Explorers Club funds, promotes, and assists in expeditions around the world.
The club’s current and historical members include astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong, film director James Cameron, Space-X and Tesla founder Elon Musk, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, President Teddy Roosevelt, and aviator Charles Lindbergh.
The Explorers Club invited Business Insider in 2014 to take an exclusive look inside the historic club.
The Explorers Club is located on East 70th Street in Manhattan near Central Park. The house’s Jacobean facade makes it instantly recognizable.
Harrison Jacobs/Business Insider
The Explorers Club headquarters was originally the home of Stephen C. Clark, the heir to the Singer Sewing Machine fortune and founder of the Baseball Hall of Fame. Club member and famous writer Lowell Thomas later bought the house and gifted the property to the club.
Harrison Jacobs/Business Insider
The front sitting room is suffused with history, including many 15th- and 16th-century fixtures from Europe. The wood coffee table was originally a hatch cover on the USC&GS Explorer, a survey ship and research vessel that was one of the few ships to survive the 1941 Pearl Harbor attack.
Harrison Jacobs/Business Insider
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