“This website attempts to walk you through the long and diverse history of a particular aspect of human endeavour: The translation of ideas, stories and concepts that are largely textual and/or word based into a visual format, i.e. visual communication.”

From The Economist: “A good graphic can tell a story, bring a lump to the throat, even change policies. Here are three of history’s best.”

Check out the short animated, “infographicy” film “Duelity,” by Marcos Ceravolo and Ryan Uhrich:

According to the records of the General Organization of Development labs (GOD) it took a mere six days to manufacture a fully-operational universe, complete with day, night, flora and fauna, and installing Adam as its manager to oversee daily functions on Earth.

That’s one story.

If thou shalt believe the Book of Darwin, t’is five billion years after The Big Bang that we behold what the cosmos hath begat; the magma, the terra firma, the creeping beats, and mankind, whose dolorous and chaotic evolution begat the gift of consciousness.

Duelity is a split-screen animation that tells both sides of the story of Earth’s origins in a dizzying and provocative journey through the history and language that marks human thought.

“It is my privilege and pleasure to announce that a book based on the this humble website is now in release and available for purchase by the general public…

As you might expect, the book features eclectic and rare book illustrations derived from many digital repositories, accompanied by some background commentary. It is not simply a regurgitation of what is here in the archives, although about two thirds of the images have appeared on the site previously.”

“Bad Archaeology is the brainchild of a couple of archaeologists who are fed up with the distorted view of the past that passes for knowledge in popular culture. We are unhappy that books written by people with no understanding of real archaeology dominate the shelves at respectable bookstores. We do not appreciate news programmes that talk about ley lines (for example) as if they are real.

In short, we are Angry Archaeologists.”

“We create informational graphics that tell stories about subjects, time periods and events. Our purpose is to inform and entertain you with intense content embedded in an elegant design.”

A 1957 animated short by Charles And Ray Eames: “Applies graphic sensitivity to medium in cartoon form, and traces the history of storing and analyzing information from the days of the cavemen to today’s age of electronic brains.”

“Chinese archaeologists studying ancient rock carvings say they have evidence that modern Chinese script is thousands of years older than previously thought. State media say researchers identified more than 2,000 pictorial symbols dating back 8,000 years, on cliff faces in the north-west of the country. They say many of these symbols bear a strong resemblance to later forms of ancient Chinese characters. Scholars had thought Chinese symbols came into use about 4,500 years ago.”

“This is an expanded version of a timeline that appeared in Cabinet’s ‘Histories of the Future’ issue. Daniel Rosenberg’s introduction to the timeline can be found here. Although we have not been able to preserve the horizontal design, we have added additional entries for this web version.” (Thanks kottke.org!)

“Sultry, sexy and slathered with ‘whipped cream’ in her famous album cover, Dolores Erickson still stirs up fantasies 35 years later. Erickson, who now lives in Kelso, was the cover girl on Herb Alpert’s Tijuana Brass ‘Whipped Cream & Other Delights.’”

“A collection of 70’s pictures” including Cars, Fashion, Film and TV, Furniture, Houses, Interiors, Posters, Vasarely art that make up a nice visual reference site.

“Whenever anyone publishes one of these lists, there’s always a wave of griping about how worthless lists are. Then everyone makes a list of what’s wrong with this particular list. Personally, I like lists. I figure that having a list in hand of the century’s greatest books gives me something to look for at the book store. If I fancy myself a film critic and I haven’t seen #14 on the list of greatest films, then maybe I had better hike to the video store.”

“The history of credit cards. The history of cell phones. The history of contact lenses. The history ofÖwell, the history of ìyou name itî. Whatever history you need, itís here. This website is the premier site for informative articles about the history of all those things youíve always wondered about.”

“This page contains images of various papers found in a box that hadn’t been opened in over 100 years… Most collectors and dealers refer to paper collectibles as ‘Ephemera’ items since they were in general meant to be discarded once they were used.”

“The start of a collection… More contributions gratefully received.”