Histography allows users to view a timeline starting with the Big Bang up to C.E. 2015. Created as a final project by Matan Stauber and guided by Ronel Mor at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design.Histography utilizes Wikipedia articles to create a 14 billion year timeline. Users can focus down to one year all the way out to the full 14 billion years.
The sidebar on the left displays the span of time being focused on, as well as, focusing on or comparing different categories of events. The image below demonstrates the comparison of riots (black dots) and politics (white dots) in the 75 year period between 1940 and 2015. Below each category the number displayed is the total events related to that category pertaining to that period.
When a dot (event) on the timeline is chosen, it expands and displays a menu. The menu changes based on available information on the given event. Every event I tried, at the very least, had the menu option to display related events within the span of time selected (demonstrated below). Events with more information had menus with options for a Wikipedia page and occasionally a Youtube video. Some of the links for Wikipedia articles only display the title of the event, whereas others give a formatted version of the Wikipedia article. Some of the Youtube videos provided are unfortunately no longer available.
Along the bottom of the page is a scroll bar that allows the user to broaden the time frame or reduce it. It also brings up another menu from which a period of time can be selected and the timeline will set itself to that time period.
The little square in the corner changes the view of the timeline. The green square in the upper left takes the user to “Editorial Stories” which features major events. The sidebar for “Editorial Stories” is the timeline and the main page just displays the event information and graphics. Included in this menu is a “FEELING LUCKY” button which randomly picks an event from the timeline. From this page, to get back to the general timeline there is a pink square in the upper right corner.
This project is a great resource for creating one’s own timeline, getting an overview of a period of time, or as a starting point for a research project. I found it particularly useful establishing a broad understanding of world events in a particular year or time frame. The site is very easy to use, the primary issue is that the site is no longer being maintained and as a result some of the links are no longer useful. It also no longer goes past 2015, so it is not helpful for recent history.