Late 19th-century America: Door-to-Door salesmen take briefcases filled with paint, brushes and flat sheets of tin or zinc and hammer out stencil patterns to decorate furniture.

Early 1900s: After the Russian Revolution, Soviet artists design propaganda posters with stencil art.

1920s: A group of artists in Argentina cut communist messages into stencils made of baking sheets and use pump-spray bottles filled with pigment to spread the message on the streets.

Early 1940s: Fascists in Italy stencil Mussolini’s face all over Italy.

1947: Aerosol technology is developed.

1940s and ‘50s: Stenciling starts showing up in the beginnings of Pop art.

1960s: Vietnam War protestors paint stenciled letters on antiwar signs.

Late 1970s: in New York, punk bands stencil sidewalks to advertise their shows at local clubs.

1970s and ‘80s: In South Africa, the most common stencil is a picture of imprisoned leader Nelson Mandela.

1990s: Young political activists around the world stencil messages in sidewalks, street signs and buildings. The internet creates a worldwide community of street artists on sites such as www.woostercollective.com and www.stencilrevolution.com

2006: Museo {i}menos emerges with The Poor Man's Portable Printing Press and You are here / Usted está aquí / Le ayato