ArcMap Easter Egg

Take a Break · ribbon tool · by Jeff Jenness
Works at every ArcGIS Pro license level

Summary

Recalls a small piece of GIS history. Early versions of ArcMap, 8.3 and 9.0, hid an easter egg: start an edit session, type the letters j-e-r-r-y, and a picture of Jerry Garcia appeared on your map. Esri removed it in later releases. This button shows the original artwork again, with its story.

The ArcMap easter egg artwork: a small black-and-white drawing of Jerry Garcia, bearded, with long hair and dark glasses
The original easter egg artwork, shown at twice its size.

Usage

The Take a Break group of the ribbon, with the ArcMap Easter Egg button outlined in blue
Where to find it: ArcMap Easter Egg is in the Take a Break group of the Wildlife and Forestry tab.

Click ArcMap Easter Egg on the ribbon. A card opens with the artwork and its story on the left. On the right is the photograph the artwork appears to have been traced from, shown as a small thumbnail with its credit and two links: one to the photographer's archive, where the original can be viewed and licensed, and one to the story of the photograph. The card can be dragged, does not block ArcGIS Pro, and closes with the × in its corner.

The artwork

The picture shown is the original one, recovered from the installation files of ArcMap 8.3. It is a small drawing, 108 by 105 pixels, and the card shows it at about twice that size with its pixels kept sharp.

The drawing appears to be traced from a photograph of Jerry Garcia standing before the Step Pyramid at Saqqara, Egypt, taken in 1978 by the photographer Adrian Boot. The card shows the photograph only as a low-resolution thumbnail, for historical illustration, with the credit © Adrian Boot.

Recommended citation

Jenness, J. 2026. ArcMap Easter Egg. Wildlife and Forestry Tools add-in for ArcGIS Pro, v. 1.113.62.1 (October 2026). Jenness Enterprises. Available at: https://github.com/JeffJenness/Wildlife_Tools.

Credits

By Jeff Jenness, Jenness Enterprises (www.jennessent.com).

Licensing information

Works at every ArcGIS Pro license level (Basic, Standard, Advanced). No extension licenses are required.