The History of Science Fiction, ver. 1 (54" X 30"), Ward Shelley, 2011

wardshelley.com: “History of Science Fiction” is a graphic chronology that maps the literary genre from its nascent roots in mythology and fantastic stories to the somewhat calcified post-Star Wars space opera epics of today. The movement of years is from left to right, tracing the figure of a tentacled beast, derived from H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds Martians. Science Fiction is seen as the offspring of the collision of the Enlightenment (providing science) and Romanticism, which birthed gothic fiction, source of not only SciFi, but crime novels, horror, westerns, and fantasy (all of which can be seen exiting through wormholes to their own diagrams, elsewhere). Science fiction progressed through a number of distinct periods, which are charted, citing hundreds of the most important works and authors. Film and television are covered as well.

source file (4400x2364, 2.8MB)

Map of the Earth’s Moon, 1880, Johann Georg Justus Perthes

This hand coloured map depicts the Moon; All major craters, seas, and other physical features. Published in Stieler’s Hand Atlas, 1880.

source file (4000×3417, 3.22 MB)

Siege of Kandahar (Afghanistan) 1737. Manuscript map. - National library of Sweden.

The siege of Kandahar was a conflict between the ruler of Iran, Nader Shah, and the Afghan Hotaki dynasty that took place between April 1737 and March 1738. Much of the duration of the siege saw little fighting as Nader’s forces’ lack of heavy artillery forced them to settle into a blockade of Kandahar. As the Iranians became more impatient, they made several attempts to take the city by storm but the Afghans defiantly repulsed these attempts. On March 25, 1738 the city surrendered.

source file (1894x2696)

1507 - Waldseemüller map is the first map to include the name “America” and the first to depict the Americas as separate from Asia. There is only one surviving copy of the map, which was purchased by the Library of Congress in 2001 for $10 million.

BIG source file (13,708×7,590 - 19.65 MB)

‘Terra Nova’ (the Americas) by Martin Waldseemüller, 1513. Note that South America is unnamed and is simply left as terra incognita.

source file (2000x1743)

The countryside around Milan. Made during pastoral visits of Charles Borromeo, around 1566, in the parishes of Segrate and Cesano.

source file (1528x3048, 1.23MB)

Map of the Caspian Sea and Kamchatka, 1725, Johann Baptist Homann

One of Homann’s most interesting and influential maps, this 1725 map depicts the Caspian Sea and the Peninsula of Kamchatka. Essentially two maps in one, Homann here juxtaposes two opposite parts of Asia: the Caspian Sea, which forms part the western border of Asia and Europe, and the Peninsula of Kamchatka, the easternmost known point in continental Asia. More on this map at Wikipedia Commons.

source file (5000×4070, 5.8MB)

Pan American World Airways, World Air Routes, 1955

source file (3592×2000, 2.1MB)