The Histomap of World History is a piece of art and a visual snapshot of the past four thousand years of civilization.
The Histomap was originally designed by John B. Sparks and published by Rand McNally in 1931 and was presented as an easy-to-understand visual infographic of world history.
Before the age of the internet, it was difficult for the average person to find such a wide span of information collected in one place. The Histomap gained popularity because people found it entertaining to see events going back to 2000 BCE without having to search through a library. This piece of art collected 4000 years of history onto a single page!
This creative and impactful infographic continues to pique our interest to this day.
In 2018, we decided it needed a design refresh.
We did not add, remove, or change any of the information. All of the content stayed true to the original Histomap. We revised the design by increasing the width by 50% which gave the content a bit more separation and legibility, then we chose and set a new typeface to a more structured baseline grid, and updated the formulas of the printed colors to make better use of modern printing technology.
<- original layout | new layout ->
The original Histomap was printed on very lightweight paper and folded up like a road map, which made for a poor presentation if the owner wanted to display it on a wall because of all of the creases across the visible surface.
Our redesigned Histomap is printed on high quality matte photo paper, and is carefully rolled and packaged in a tube to eliminate any folds or creases.