The history of the global Internet stretches back several decades starting with the pioneering work of researchers and engineers in the 1960s who invented packet networking.

They discovered how to send messages between different computers on a network by dividing the message into small packets of digital data which could be transmitted across the network via separate switching computers or routers and then reassembled by the receiving computer. This technique was designed to reduce the risk of a failed communication.

By the 1980s, there were a number of different large scale packet networks in operation. Particularly notable were ARPANET, USENET, uucp, and BITNET. (These acronyms are explained below.)

Peacock Maps' new poster highlights the layout of these early networks by reproducing the original sketches, diagrams and maps of the scientists and engineers who designed these facilities.

What's On The Poster? A Row-by-Row Description

Beginning on the top left, the poster features the following illustrations:

	A sketch showing three different network topologies described by Paul Baran in his RAND Memorandum, "On Distributed Communications: 1. Introduction to Distributed Communications Network" (August 1964). In Baran's view the distributed network structure offered the best survivability. (Courtesy of RAND)
Two sketches from late 1969 of the first nodes on the nascent ARPANET (Advanced Research Project Agency Network) funded by the U.S. Department of Defense. (Courtesy of the Internet Archive's Arpanet collection.)
	A pencil sketch of a possible topology for the ARPANET made by Larry Roberts in the late 1960s. (Courtesy of Where Wizards Stay Up Late.)
This logical diagram shows the sites on the ARPANET in April 1971. (Courtesy of the Internet Archive's Arpanet collection.)
	The geography of the growing ARPANET in June 1975. The network has 57 sites, including nodes in Hawaii, Norway and London. (Courtesy of the Internet Archive's Arpanet collection.)
Another logical diagram of the ARPANET in March 1977. (Courtesy of the Internet Archive's Arpanet collection.)
	The MILNET network topology for Europe in January 1988. MILNET was the US military packet network. (Courtesy of John Quarterman's The Matrix: Computer Networks and Conferencing Systems, 1990.)
The global geography of USENET sites and links from December 1986. The map was part of a large scale USENET monitoring and mapping project directed by Brian Reid. In the 1980s USENET became the largest network for online discussions. (Courtesy of Brian Reid.)
	The USENET network map from June 1984 by Mark Horton. (Courtesy of Casting the Net.)

Web Resources

There are a large number of valuable online essays and web pages on Net History. Some good ones include:

• A Brief History of the Internet an essay by Barry M. Leiner , Vinton G. Cerf , David D. Clark, Robert E. Kahn, Leonard Kleinrock, Daniel C. Lynch, Jon Postel, Lawrence G. Roberts, Stephen Wolff.



• The History of the Net, by Henry Edward Hardy.



• History of ARPANET: Behind the Net - The untold history of the ARPANET, by Michael Hauben.



• A valuable collection of original ARPANET documents has been deposited with the Internet Archive by Katie Hafner.



• The Netizens and the Wonderful World of the Net, by Ronda Hauben & Michael Hauben.



• Historical Maps page of the Atlas of Cyberspaces.



• Early Experiences with the ARPANET and INTERNET in the UK, by Peter Kirstein.

Another way to consider the history of the Net is through a timeline of major events and developments. Two of the best timelines are:

• Hobbes' Internet Timeline, by Robert H'obbes' Zakon.



• The Networks section of the Timeline of Computer History by The Computer Museum History Center.

Books
For more depth on Internet history Peacock Maps recommends,

Peter H. Salus's Casting the Net: From ARPANET to Internet and Beyond... (1995)	Janet Abbate's Inventing The Internet (2000)	Katie Hafner & Matthew Lyon's Where Wizards Stay Up Late: The Origins of the Internet (1998)	John Naughton's A Brief History of the Future: From Radio Days to Internet Years (2001)

Coming Soon

We are working on a second poster which will cover the 'Web years' of the 1990s and chart the global growth of the Internet.

Feedback
Please contact info@peacockmaps.com.