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Aug 2025
22Aug 2025 Architecture
Eclipse Atlas Is a Searchable Archive Capturing the Alluring Phenomenon Through the Ages

Eclipse Atlas Is a Searchable Archive Capturing the Alluring Phenomenon Through the Ages

Anyone who’s donned protective glasses and spent hours camped outside with eyes toward the sky knows the strange, life-changing experience of witnessing a solar eclipse. The lunar equivalents are intriguing, too, and have fascinated people around the world for millennia.

A new archive collects maps, illustrations, and newspaper clippings documenting this alluring phenomenon from 1654 to the present day. Eclipse Atlas is a veritable trove, particularly the section cataloging ephemera from across the globe. There are 17th-century diagrams depicting the phases of totality, early photographs chronicling the events, and vivid advertisements prodding people to hop on the train so they don’t miss “the thrill of a lifetime!”

a colorfully illustrated map of an eclipse and its path
Johann Gabriel Doppelmayr, “The Darkened Globe, i.e., Geographical Representation of the Solar or Terrestrial Eclipse, July 25, 1748.”

In addition to historical documents, Eclipse Atlas also shares footage from recent events and offers insight into how to best view those coming in the next few years.

See some of our favorite finds below, and explore for yourself on the project website. (via Kottke)

an illustration of eclipse phases in an oval
Eadweard Muybridge (January 11, 1880)
a colorfully illustrated map of an eclipse and its path
Asa Smith, Diagram of the Eclipse of the Sun, July 18, 1860
an illustration advertising the solar eclipse in a london periodical
London Midland and Scottish Railway, “The Thrill of a Lifetime!” Courtesy of Sheridan Williams
Johann Georg Heck, ‘Iconographic Encyclopedia of Science, Literature, and Art’
a colorfully illustrated map of an eclipse and its path
Symon Panser, “Astronomical Sky Mirror in which one can see the most remarkable celestial phenomena of the sun, moon, and stars, as they will appear in their true form in Amsterdam and surrounding cities until the year 1740. The display of a large eclipse of the sun in the year 1748 is particularly pleasing.”
a grid illustration of an eclipse progressing. the sun has faces
Emanuel Bowen, “A Plain Description, of the Increase and Decrease of the Great Eclipse of the Sun, that Will Happen on the 11th. Day of May 1724.”

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article Eclipse Atlas Is a Searchable Archive Capturing the Alluring Phenomenon Through the Ages appeared first on Colossal.

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