The farther backward you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see. - Winston Churchill


​About the Unique Timeline Staircase Format

Who made the Art History Timeline Staircase?
Tracy Boberg Nichols is an artist and art educator in Colorado.
What inspired the Art History Timeline Staircase?
Her inspiration came from an interview question for a job at a classical school years ago.
The interview committee started by asking her three things;
1. List all of the major art time periods and eras in history.  
2. Name a few of the most important artists and artworks from each period. 
3. Describe some distinguishing characteristics of each Art period.
This was a formidable challenge even for this art and history buff.  Fortunately for both, the school hired her anyway.  
This inspired a new goal. It was to make an educational tool to make Art History memorable in its historical context and engaging for herself and her students.
Why use this staircase format?
Not satisfied with the long horizontal timelines, Tracy wanted to make a timeline easier to see from just one point of view.  Years ago, she drew out the stair steps on vertical poster paper and attached pictures and information as they studied them in class.  Over the years, the poster became dog eared, so she gave herself an assignment to make a beautiful new Art History Timeline.  “I had two main goals; 1. The poster must be useful for teaching the masterpieces of art and architecture to all grade levels.  2. The poster needed to be beautiful enough to hang in my family home as a piece of artwork.” 
How was the Timeline Staircase made?
Tracy spent years researching and sifting through what most scholars agree are some of the great masterpieces and game changers of art and architecture. She incorporated some of the most significant historical events of each century relevant to a Western classical education.  She drew out each image, line, and border in scratch board and then scanned them into the computer.  She used Photoshop to create the Timeline Poster.  This Poster reflects well over 1,000+ hours of work.  
We hope this poster enriches your understanding of our remarkable signatures of civilization.