One of the features of the textbook of the Project Physics Course developed at Harvard University in the 1960’s was its historical charts. Each of these showed the life-span of a scientist against the main events of the period and in relation to leaders in government, other scientists, philosophy literature, art, and music.
These are reproduced here.
Aristotle (385 BCE – 322 BCE) 500 BCE – 200 BCE
Courtesy of the History of Science Collections, University of Oklahoma Libraries
History Chart – Aristotle
Nicholas Copernicus (1473 – 1543) 1350 – 1600
Courtesy of the History of Science Collections, University of Oklahoma Libraries
History Chart – Copernicus
Galileo Galilei(1564 – 1642) 1500 – 1700
Courtesy of the History of Science Collections, University of Oklahoma Libraries
History Chart – Galileo
Isaac Newton (1642 – 1727) 1600 – 1750
Courtesy of the History of Science Collections, University of Oklahoma Libraries
History Chart – Newton
James Watt (1736 – 1819) 1700 – 1850
Courtesy of the History of Science Collections, University of Oklahoma Libraries
History Chart – Watt
James Clerk Maxwell (1831 – 1879) 1700 – 1900
Courtesy of the History of Science Collections, University of Oklahoma Libraries
History Chart – Maxwell
Niels Bohr (1885 – 1962) 1800 – 1970
Courtesy of the History of Science Collections, University of Oklahoma Libraries
History Chart – Bohr
After Bohr, new charts were not added since so many great scientists—Marie Curie, Albert Einstein. Charles Darwin, Enrico Fermi, and others—lived at some time in the 1800 to 1970 period.