"A Cultural History of Data Visualization," prepared for the Yale Digital Humanities Working Group, February 27, 2014.

1. A Cultural History of Data Visualization; or,
The Long Arc of Visual Display
Yale University
Digital Humanities Working Group
February 27, 2014
Lauren F. Klein
Georgia Institute of Technology
lauren.klein@lmc.gatech.edu

5. http://feltron.com/

6. Nick Felton, The 2006 Feltron Annual Report
http://feltron.com/ar06_01.html

7. Nick Felton, The 2012 Feltron Annual Report
http://feltron.com/ar12_04.html

8. http://daytum.com/

9. Nick Felton, The 2012 Feltron Annual Report
http://feltron.com/ar12_04.html

10. http://theyrule.net/

11. http://hint.fm/wind/

12. Paul Rucker, Proliferation
http://paulrucker.com/projects/proliferation/

13. S.W.A.M.P Collective
Spore 1.1

14. “Graphics reveal data” (13).

15. From The Works of the Honorable
Robert Boyle (1744)

16. http://dhdebates.gc.cuny.edu/debates/text/18

17. Joseph Priestley, A New Chart of History (1769)

18. “If the reader carry his eye vertically, he will see the contemporary state of all the empires
subsisting in the world, at any particular time. He may observe which were then rising, which
were flourishing, and which were upon the decline. Casting his eye a little on each side of the
vertical line, he will see what empires had lately gone off the stage, and which were about to
come on.”

19. Thomas Jeffreys, A Chart of Universal History (1753)

20. Nicolas Lenglet du Fresnoy, Tables chronologiques de l’histoire universelle (1729)

21. Visualization as “Cognitive Enhancement”
•
•
•
•
•
•
Increased memory / processing resources
Reduced search time
Enhanced pattern recognition
Perceptual inference (much faster than logical)
Use of perceptual attention mechanisms for
monitoring
Encoding information in a manipulable form
-- Stuart Card et al., Readings in Information
Visualization: Using Vision to Think (Morgan
Kaufman, 1999)
h/t to Chris Sula for the reference

22. William Playfair, from The Commercial and Political Atlas (1786)

23. “On inspecting any one of these Charts attentively, a sufficiently distinct impression
will be made, to remain unimpaired for a considerable time, and the idea which does
remain will be simple and complete.”

24. William Playfair, from An Inquiry into the Permanent Cause of the Decline and Fall of
Wealthy and Powerful Nations (1805)

25. William Playfair, “CHART, Shewing at One View The Price of The Quarter of Wheat, &
Wages of Labour by the Week, from The Year 1565 to 1821” (1822)

26. “The minds of men, the boundaries of nations, their laws and
relations with each other, are all in a state of change, and
commerce must feel the consequences of those events of
which it has been a principal cause.
“Should those revolutions and partitions already effected, or
about to be attempted, produce, as usual, political
fermentation in proportion to their importance, Europe may
probably be convulsed with war for fifty years to come. The
last century has been the century of arts and commerce, this
newly commenced may then be that of war and contention. If
it turns out so, a picture of the past will be a valuable thing, if,
on the contrary, commerce should continue its progress, this
will make the first part of a great whole, which, when
completed on some future day, will be a most valuable work.”
“It is not only of importance that this species of information
should be handed down, but also that it should go down in
such a form and manner as that any person might even,
though a native of another country, understand the nature of
the business delineated.”
William Playfair, “Preface to the Third Edition,” The Commercial and Political
Atlas, 3rd edition (1801).

27. Emma Willard, Temple of Time (1846)
http://blogs.princeton.edu/rarebooks/2008/12/standing_within_the_temple_of.html

28. Emma Willard, Temple of Time (1846)
http://blogs.princeton.edu/rarebooks/2008/12/standing_within_the_temple_of.html

29. William Rankin
Vine of Liberty (1849)

30. William Rankin
Vine of Liberty (1849)

31. Consult American Antiquarian Society for image.
Diagram and Statistical Record of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence (1858)
Source: American Antiquarian Society

32. Gregor Aisch
Data Insights: A Visualization

33. Visualization  insight
•
“We discover unimagined effects, and we challenge imagined
ones.”
--William Cleveland, Visualizing Data (1993)

34. Visualization  insight
•
•
“We discover unimagined effects, and we challenge imagined
ones.”
--William Cleveland, Visualizing Data (1993)
“I see it now. Aha!”
--Martin Wattenberg, on data visualization (2007)

35. Visualization  insight
•
•
•
“We discover unimagined effects, and we challenge imagined
ones.”
--William Cleveland, Visualizing Data (1993)
“I see it now. Aha!”
--Martin Wattenberg, on data visualization (2007)
It “forces” us to see.
--Stephen Ramsay, “In Praise of Pattern” (1995).

36. Thomas Jefferson
1783 Catalog of Books

37. Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of
Virginia (1787 edition)

38. “A Comparative View of the
Quadrupeds of Europe and of
America.” Notes on the State
of Virginia (1781-5)

39. “Vegetables.” Notes on the
State of Virginia (1781-5)

40. “Birds of Virginia.” Notes on the
State of Virginia (1781-5)

41. A page of Thomas Jefferson’s
Farm-book, ca. 1774.

42. A page of Thomas Jefferson’s
Farm-book, ca. 1774.

43. Thomas Jefferson,
“Agreement with James
Hemings” (1793)

44. http://rotunda.upress.virginia.edu
/founders/default.xqy?keys=TSJNinfo-search

45. http://rotunda.upress.virginia.edu
/founders/TSJN-01-27-02-0127

48. David Sparks, “How Congress Uses Twitter”
http://www.psmag.com/politics/how-congress-uses-twitter-16338/

50. TOME: Interactive TOpic Model and MEtadata Visualization
Lauren Klein and Jacob Eisenstein, co-PIs
Image by Iris Sun

51. Mark Hansen and Ben Rubin
Movable Type

52. How to tell a new story …
… in space:
• Where did events take place, or objects originate?
• How did people, objects, or ideas circulate?
• What is the composition of a place (real or imagined)?
Tools
•
•
•
•
•
•
Google Maps
Geocommons
Neatline
HyperCities
OpenLayers
ArcGIS
Mitch Fraas, Mapping Books
http://mappingbooks.blogspot.com/

53. How to tell a new story …
… over time:
• How did an event (or sequence of events) unfold?
• How did an idea (or sequence of ideas) develop?
• What were the touchpoints of a particular movement?
Tools
•
•
•
•
•
Dipity
Timeline.js
Neatline
TimeFlow
TimelineSetter
David McClure, The Battle of Chancellorsville
http://hotchkiss.neatline.org/neatlineexhibits/show/battle-of-chancellorsville/

54. How to tell a new story …
… across networks:
• How were people connected?
• How did content travel?
• Through what pathways were ideas exchanged?
Tools
•
•
•
•
•
Circos
Gephi
Cytoscape
NodeXL
D3.js
Northeastern University NULab, Viral Texts
http://www.viraltexts.org/

55. How to tell a new story …
… about language:
• How often does a certain word, phrase, or theme appear?
• When did a certain word, phrase, or theme become prevalent?
• What are the most common themes in an archive?
Tools
•
•
•
•
•
•
Wordle
ManyEyes
Google Ngram Viewer
Voyant
WordSeer
MALLET
Sarah Lohman, Nutmeg, Mace, Cinnamon, Clove
http://www.fourpoundsflour.com/the-gallerydata-visualization-of-a-timeline-of-taste/

56. How to tell a new story …
… through charts:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Visual.ly
Piktochart
Infogr.am
Many Eyes
Tableau Public (PC only)
Google Fusion Tables
D3.js
Also, tools for preparing/cleaning data:
•
•
•
Microsoft Excel (w/ search/replace)
Data Wrangler
Google Refine

57. Visualizing Advocacy
https://visualisingadvocacy.org/resources/visualisationtools

58. A Carefully Selected List of Recommended Tools
http://selection.datavisualization.ch/

59. A Cultural History of Data Visualization; or,
The Long Arc of Visual Display
Yale University
Digital Humanities Working Group
February 27, 2014
Lauren F. Klein
Georgia Institute of Technology
lauren.klein@lmc.gatech.edu