Smatters

There’s something charming about Adam’s Synchronological Chart or Map of History, even if I am a secular scientific type. It shows the history of the world following (more or less) Ussher’s chronology which famously begins everything at 4004 BC. Adam’s chart begins in biblical times, and tracks the “flow of history” mostly in terms of prominent European rulers. The first edition ended in 1871. There are claimed to be editions updated through the 21st century.

I haven’t seen a version displaying dinosaurs.

You can download a copy of the whole thing, scanned in reasonably high resolution from Wikimedia Commons. It is a 43 megabyte JPEG image of the 1881 edition (James Garfield is President, having not  yet been assassinated).

The Chart poses a challenge to some display software because it is so outrageously large. Most JPEG images from cameras are 5 MB or less. The Chart is on par with giant maps downloaded from the Geological Survey or Library of Congress.