Documentation and recordation is extremely vital to history. Thanks to scholars in the past, we have events in the past we can learn from that allow us to progress. Through chronology, we can see how past events have affected ones that have proceeded them and monitor what is occurring in the world around these events. Nowadays, it is important to study history to see how far we have come as a society and to discover how we arrived to the point that we are at. When documenting history, it is imperative to record the event and all of its specifics because it could alter a future event.
The 1740s Timemapper and the Timeglider have their similiarities, yet they also have their differences. They both portray chronology is clear ways, but I feel as though the Timemapper was visually more appealing than the Timeglider. The Timemapper included helpful images as well as a map of where the event took place and a brief description of the event, while the Timeglider simply lists certain events in shortened and vague form in which you have to click on the event to receive more information. It is a little annoying to color-coat the events as well, as their significance is a bit arbitrary. The format is a lot more complex than the Timemapper and is overall not as helpful.
Grafton brought forth some critical points concerning chronology and history. He reminded us that chronology is an aspect of history and that we often confuse them as the same thing. Without chronology, history wouldn’t exist and for that we should be grateful towards historians who have documented important details of past events. Also, history is an order; therefore it is a sequence of events that have some relation to each other. They are not random and happen for a reason. Nowadays with technology, it is easier to document things and the order of which they happen. With social media and the internet, there is more clarification which should be positive for the future.
