"The Elements of Typographic Style" by Robert Bringhurst has a section about Serifed and Unserifed text fonts with a good list. It presents the author name, when it was produced and some historical facts...
You can make easly your poster/timeline.

António

Thank you for the answer.

If I may can I ask a favour ?

The favour is could you list the top 5/6 most important/popular serrifed and unserrifed fonts between 1900 and 2008 ?

It would be great to have a list of 5/6 sans fonts in chronological order and the same for serrifed.

Thank you in advance.

Most important or popular? Under what criteria?

As in the most seen and used in newspapers, adverts, posters etc.

You could also do 2 lists with one being most important and the other popular.

I don't really mind to be honest, it will be nice to see peoples opinions.

Sorry for bumping but could anyone answer please ?

I hope to have a rough copy by monday/tuesday.

Franklin Gothic
Futura
Helvetica
Rotis
Meta
Verdana

Cheltenham
Golden Type
Times
Joanna
Adobe Garamond
Georgia

Cheers Light!

Using the list from “The Elements of Typographic Style” by Robert Bringhurst I choose:

Serifed
Bembo 1929
Palatino 1948
Minion 1989
Scala 1991 (date of publicly issued)
Caecilia 1991

Unserifed
Futura 1927
Gill Sans 1927
Frutiger 1975
Avenir (1988)- this one dont show on book list
Scala Sans 1994

This is a simple list. I dont give it special credit. I choose some font I like, not special criteria...

António