Gallery: Travel Through Time With These Strange and Beautiful Visualizations of the Universe
State Library of Lucca01p39-38r bis-rev-col rev2-smaller
A dramatic early representation of a spherical Earth, from medieval visionary writer, composer, and proto-feminist Hildegard von Bingen
Courtesy the Library of Congress Geography and Map Division Washington, D.C.02p60-ct003543-rev-4x3
Professor Orlando Ferguson refutes the “globe theory” in this broadsheet bulletin from Hot Springs, South Dakota, proposing instead a kind of four-cornered, roulette-wheel world.
Courtesy the David Rumsey Historical Maps Collection03p64-65-7048000-RUMSEY-smaller
Physiographic map of the world’s oceans from 1976.
Courtesy Olga Shonova04p102-Pesek-Moonscape with Earth-smaller
Czech illustrator Ludek Pesek painted a a craggy lunar landscape with distant Earth low on the horizon in 1963.
The Ashmolean Museum Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art05p145EA-1978-2573-a-smaller
An angel holds the celestial spheres in this medieval Islamic drawing.
Courtesy AMNH-Hayden Planetarium, from Dark Universe, directed by Carter Emmart, produced by Vivian Trakinski06p170-1-MASTER-hayden-EDIT-v005.33527-rev-uprez-smaller
A depiction of visible galaxies and clusters from a 2013 visualization
Courtesy the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County07p188-Trouvelot-0008-rev2
This depiction of Mars from 1881 is beautiful but largely unsupported by later evidence.
Courtesy the Library of Congress08p186-187-ct003790-rev-smaller
A detailed map of the solar system from the 1800s.
Courtesy the Library of Congress09p264-ct003798-crop-colorized-smaller
A depiction of a total eclipse that occurred on May 12, 1706.
Courtesy Day & Faber10SONY DSC
A fiery and fanciful view of a comet.
Courtesy Day & Faber11SONY DSC
Another depiction of a comet from the mid-1500s.
