--- title: How The World Has Changed Since 1850 in One Chart description: Okay, technichally it's all in one chart-making machine made public on Wednesday by the New York Times canonical: https://time.com/3025461/how-the-world-has-changed-since-1850-in-11-charts/ author: Katy Steinmetz article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-07-23T22:09:01.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:42:54.270Z og:title: How The World Has Changed Since 1850 in One Chart og:description: Okay, technichally it's all in one chart-making machine made public on Wednesday by the New York Times og:url: https://time.com/3025461/how-the-world-has-changed-since-1850-in-11-charts/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltac2264a0e46f21d5/69869cf0adae4475e254445e/be020402-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: A woman reads the first page of the New York Times of Aril 1, 1968, when the headlines declared : "Johnson Says He Won't Run; Will Halt Bombing in North". This referred to President Johnson's refusal to accept or seek renomination. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How The World Has Changed Since 1850 in One Chart twitter:description: Okay, technichally it's all in one chart-making machine made public on Wednesday by the New York Times twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltac2264a0e46f21d5/69869cf0adae4475e254445e/be020402-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How The World Has Changed Since 1850 in 11 Charts by [Katy Steinmetz](/author/katy-steinmetz/) ## Katy Steinmetz Jul 23, 2014 10:09 PM CUT  A woman reads the first page of the New York Times of Aril 1, 1968, when the headlines declared : "Johnson Says He Won't Run; Will Halt Bombing in North". This referred to President Johnson's refusal to accept or seek renomination. A woman reads the first page of the New York Times of Aril 1, 1968, when the headlines declared : "Johnson Says He Won't Run; Will Halt Bombing in North". This referred to President Johnson's refusal to accept or seek renomination.Bettmann/CORBIS by [Katy Steinmetz](/author/katy-steinmetz/) ## Katy Steinmetz Jul 23, 2014 10:09 PM CUT The language that journalists use tells us a lot more than what happened today—there is also a subtext about which topics people want to read about, who is considered noteworthy. Changes in that subtext over time reflect changes in our perception of the world. A notion like that might sound all nebulous and soppy without hard numbers to back it up. Luckily, we have something even better than numbers: colorful charts! On Wednesday, the New York _Times_ made public [a tool](http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/ "undefined") that their editors have been hoarding among themselves since 2012\. Called Chronicle, the machine allows users to search for and compare how often certain terms have appeared in their coverage between about 1850 and 2012. Take, for instance, this telling demonstration of how much that media outlet has valued news related to _women_, compared to _men_, over time:  Or take a gander at the amount of times writers have felt need to use the word _computer,_ as opposed to _farmer_:  Consider a concept like a mother or woman who is married and does not work. The way we’ve referred to this class of people, responding to insinuations of value or being de-valued, has also shifted:  Then there are topics that we’ve come to care about that didn’t matter or didn’t even exist as concepts in previous decades, some related to the environment:  Some related to gender:  Some related to disease:  Some related to our bodies:  And some related to how we transport those bodies:  The charts can tell us about how slang has evolved:  And what conflicts we’ve lived through, as well as how much relative attention we paid to them:  You can even ask the machine philosophical questions, like whether people tend to care more when something starts or finishes. The answer might not be definitive, but you will at least find yourself presented with a lovely new visual aid:  _This is an edition of Wednesday Words, a weekly feature on language. For the previous post,_ [_click here_](http://time.com/2993508/emoji-rules-tweets/ "undefined")_._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3025461/how-the-world-has-changed-since-1850-in-11-charts/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3025461/how-the-world-has-changed-since-1850-in-11-charts/"},"headline":"How The World Has Changed Since 1850 in 11 Charts","datePublished":"2014-07-23T22:09:01.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:42:54.270Z","description":"Okay, technichally it's all in one chart-making machine made public on Wednesday by the New York Times","url":"https://time.com/3025461/how-the-world-has-changed-since-1850-in-11-charts/","keywords":["Living","New York Times","Culture"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltac2264a0e46f21d5/69869cf0adae4475e254445e/be020402-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Katy Steinmetz","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/katy-steinmetz/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltac2264a0e46f21d5/69869cf0adae4475e254445e/be020402-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"A woman reads the first page of the New York Times of Aril 1, 1968, when the headlines declared : \"Johnson Says He Won't Run; Will Halt Bombing in North\". This referred to President Johnson's refusal to accept or seek renomination.","caption":"A woman reads the first page of the New York Times of Aril 1, 1968, when the headlines declared : \"Johnson Says He Won't Run; Will Halt Bombing in North\". This referred to President Johnson's refusal to accept or seek renomination.","creditText":"Bettmann/CORBIS","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-living/","name":"Living"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3025461/how-the-world-has-changed-since-1850-in-11-charts/","name":"How The World Has Changed Since 1850 in 11 Charts"}}]}] ```