| 1839 | Born Shadwell, East London. |
| 1844 | Father dies, moves to aunt's in Enfield. |
| 1853 | Enters King's School. |
| 1855? | Introduced to John Keble, increases his desire to enter the clergy. |
| 1858 | Reads the first four volumes of Modern Painters: Ruskin's work awakens an interest in aesthetic criticism. |
| 1858 | Enters Queen's College, Oxford on a merit scholarship from King's School. |
| 1862 | Having spent too much time on "extracurricular reading," graduates Oxford with only second class honors (A.B. in Literae Humaniores). |
| 1863 | Elected to Old Mortality Society (group of undergraduates and other scholars which also includes Swinburne), where he first discusses his aesthetic ideals in four unpublished essays. Advocates his "Aesthetic Hero" during the reading of one of these. |
| 1864 | Gains a fellowship at Brasenose College for his scholarship in Greek and German philosophy. Begins a very productive half-decade in which--although he publishes little-- he writes papers which make crucial developments in the solidification of his thinking. These include substitution of art for Christian faith, and building ideas about aesthetics, immortality, and uncertainty of events. |
| 1864 | Gives his famous "February 20 Essay". Although the full text of this is unrecorded it is known that the reading contained "anti-Christian" remarks which demonstrate his altered position on the Church. Significantly, this establishes his lifelong pattern of politely bucking the mainstream. |
| 1866 | First published essay "Coleridge's Writings" openly declares his earlier replacement of High Church faith with "religion of art". |
| 1867 | "Winckelmann" (unsigned). |
| 1868 | "Poems by William Morris" (unsigned also). |
| 1869 | Publishes "Notes on Leonardo Di Vinci", the first of a series on the Masters in Fortnightly Review which will form the point of commencement for The Renaissance. "A Fragment on Sandro Botticelli" (Aug.'70), "Pico della Mirandola" (Oct.'71), and "Michelangelo" (Nov.'71) follow. |
| 1873 | First Edition of Studies in the History of the Renaissance. |
| 1874- | Tutors Oscar Wilde at Oxford; develops close friendship with the Great Aesthete. |
| 1883 | Resigns Brasenose Tutorship in order to have more time to compose Marius the Epicurean. |
| 1885 | Publishes Marius the Epicurean. The protagonist, Pater's "Aesthetic Hero" becomes a model for Aesthetes and Decadents everywhere. |
| 1880's | Introduced to Violet Paget (Vernon Lee), one of the few people around whom the shy, reserved Pater is comfortable. |
| 1886 | "Literary tea drinking" occurs, representative of the many recurring social gatherings of Pater, Vernon Lee, Henry James, Andrew Lang, Thomas Hardy, and others of note during the decade. |
| 1887 | Imaginary Portraits. |
| 1888 | Gaston de Latour. |
| 1889 | "Appreciations". |
| 1892 | "Emerald Uthwart". |
| 1893 | Plato and Platonism. |
| 1894 | Dies at Oxford. |
This chronology is based upon Benson, A.C. Walter Pater. London: MacMillan, 1907. and Monsman, Gerald. Walter Pater. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1977.
Last modified 1998