Visualization of Travels – Time Line Navigation

The „Humboldt Digital Library“ is an ongoing research project to preserve the legacy of Alexander von Humboldt in an online information system.

The vision of the „Humboldt Digital Library“ goes beyond the traditional system. Humboldt’s idea of interconnectedness requires a system of flexible navigation from any point in the digital library to any other related point within or outside Humboldt’s works.

Humboldt Time Line

The Humboldt Digital Library has used this program to create a map of Humboldt’s travels throughout the New World. Included are important places, images and paintings from artists, text descriptions, maps and lines marking Humboldt’s approximate path.

A recent tool (Time Line Navigation), which only works with Firefox Browser, allows the user to navigate in time and in space  at the same time so that he can see the journey chronologically and place Humboldt´s itinerary.

There a three possibilities to trace Humboldt´s journey: the user can select a country from a list, chose a location in the map or  select years and places in the timeline and in this way navigate in time and space.