Making a Timeline

Making a Timeline

Introduction

Timeline.js is a lightweight, popular tool for creating web-based timelines. It doesn’t allow a ton of customization but it has a comparatively shallow learning curve. Here is an example of a historian’s timeline built with this tool: http://teaching.erinbush.org/f17h390/donner-party-timeline/

In this exercise, you’ll make a collaborative timeline of events in the history of feminism in the United States.

Part I: Get to Know the Data

You’re going to collaboratively create a timeline of a handful of events in the history of first-, second-, third-, and fourth-wave feminism in the United States. You’ll be using Wikipedia as your major source of information, which helpfully has a different pages dedicated to each of these waves.

• First-Wave Feminism: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First-wave_feminism#Timeline
• Second-Wave Feminism: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_second-wave_feminism
• Third-Wave Feminism: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third-wave_feminism#Timeline
• Fourth-Wave Feminism: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth-wave_feminism#Timeline

Divide up the pages in your group. Each of you needs to familiarize yourself with the data. What kind of events does it include? How is the information formatted?

You’re going to then use an existing template that I started for you: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1mlY8Pe2M_Bc6nvoJEpNxi6plwu_Od0CvuqN-HxQtNPI/edit?usp=sharing.

Look at the spreadsheet. As a group, make sure everyone knows what each column means. If you can’t figure one of them out, ask me.

Part II: Add the Data

Each person then chooses two events from their respective page to add to the timeline. Begin adding as much information as you can into each column.

Before moving to Part III, make sure everyone is finished and compare your different rows. Are there discrepancies between them? If so, how would you resolve them?

Part III: Present the Data

Follow the instructions on this page to publish and generate your timeline: https://timeline.knightlab.com/#make. Use the Share Link to preview what the timeline looks like and then change the Google Spreadsheet to debug anything that doesn’t look right.

Now you’re going to embed the timeline into your personal “sandbox” website in Wordpress. Go to the following tutorial and follow the instructions starting with “Embedding Your Timeline into your WordPress Site”: http://teaching.erinbush.org/tutorial-creating-narrative-timeline-timeline-js/

Make sure everyone in the group has successfully managed to embed the group timeline in their sandbox. Help each other out if you’re getting stuck!