“Rev up your modem and pick your destination”: PC Computing’s 1995 Road Map to the World Wide Web

New York: Ziff-Davis, 1995. 24 ¾ x 37 inch two-sided poster. Some slight creasing; near fine.. A 1995 “road map” of the Web, designed by technical artist and graphic designer Timothy Edward Downs for PC Computing. In 1995, the World Wide Web had only been available to the public for a handful of years – but it was growing massively, with over ten times as many websites in 1995 as in 1994. This guide to the Web, inspired by subway maps and packaged for PC Computing readers like a AAA road map, organizes the interesting and useful sites on the early Internet by type of content, with URLs and opinionated summaries. It includes links to everything from the US EPA website to the live info page for the disastrous Woodstock 94 music festival (described on the map as “Worth seeing.”)

We find five copies of Downs’ map on OCLC. A scarce piece, of interest to Internet historians – and users.