Willard's Temple of Time Chart, 1849

The story of this map

Emma Willard was one of the most influential teachers in nineteenth-century America. She founded the Troy Female Seminary in 1821, wrote the history textbooks that a generation of students learned from, and believed that history was easiest to remember when you could see it. This chart is one of the ways she made that happen.

It folds out from the front of her 1849 Historic Guide, and it turns time into architecture. Willard drew history as a great temple in perspective: the centuries stand as columns receding into the distance, the names of rulers and events are ranged along them, and the whole structure is meant to be walked through in the mind, from the ancient world at the far end to the present day in the foreground. It is an unusual and rather beautiful object, part diagram and part picture.

Charts like this were hung in schoolrooms and studies, and Willard’s “Temple of Time” scheme became famous enough to be shown at the Great Exhibition in London in 1851.

We print it as a restored reproduction in our Historic Charts and Themed Maps collection, in two small sizes that suit the fold-out’s scale. It makes a thoughtful gift for a teacher, a historian, or anyone who likes their walls to have something to read. Printed to order on archival matte paper and framed in the country of delivery.

Before and after

Left: the archive scan exactly as published. Right: the file that goes to the printer.

Archive scanRestored

Restoration notes

Restoration: cropped the scanner bed and mount margins, corrected levels and colour cast while keeping the paper tone, removed dust and specks, applied gentle sharpening. Fold lines, stains and period annotations are kept where they belong to the object; nothing is redrawn.

Every print carries its archive credit on the packing slip. Paper tone and small imperfections of the original are kept on purpose; nothing is redrawn.