The Carte figurative des pertes successives en hommes de l'Armée Française dans la campagne de Russie 1812-1813 pictured below is a flow map published in 1869 on the subject of Napoleon's disastrous Russian campaign of 1812. And perhaps one of the coolest infographics I've seen.
Information graphics
Imagine it's the middle of the 19th century and you havean excel sheet a parchment paper with neatly written columns and rows containing data on the human losses Napoleon suffered on his 1812 Russian campaign, dutifully collected by a scribe. In another soldier's journal, you found meticulous notes of the temperature drop through the winter. Finally, you interview several homesteads and towns in middle-of-nowhere-Russia to find the path Napoleon marched. What do you do with this information? If you're Minard, you make the first infographic.
Minard was a pioneer of the use of graphics in engineering and statistics. He is famous for his Carte figurative des pertes successives en hommes de l'Armée Française dans la campagne de Russie 1812-1813, a flow map published in 1869 on the subject of Napoleon's disastrous Russian campaign of 1812.
His graph displays several variables in a single two-dimensional image:
Étienne-Jules Marey first called notice to this dramatic depiction of the terrible fate of Napoleon's army in the Russian campaign, saying it "defies the pen of the historian in its brutal eloquence". Edward Tufte says it "may well be the best statistical graphic ever drawn" and uses it as a prime example in The Visual Display of Quantitative Information.
The beauty of Minard's map lies in its simplicity.
Fast forward almost two centuries: imagine it's the beginning of the 21st century and you've gota parchment paper your lab notebook full of raw, primary data. What do you do with these data? How do you summarize it all? How do you communicate the summary in the simplest, most clear way?
Complexity of an idea is inversely proportional to our understanding of it. In the Hirschey Lab, we try to achieve the simplicity and beauty that Minard achieved. Science is complex, but with a complete understanding of science, it can be simple.
Like this infographic? Check out these others (including one from the Hirschey Lab). Liked them a lot? First send us your CV to see if we have any positions for you, then click on the links for a few more.
Imagine it's the middle of the 19th century and you have
Minard was a pioneer of the use of graphics in engineering and statistics. He is famous for his Carte figurative des pertes successives en hommes de l'Armée Française dans la campagne de Russie 1812-1813, a flow map published in 1869 on the subject of Napoleon's disastrous Russian campaign of 1812.
His graph displays several variables in a single two-dimensional image:
- the army's location and direction, showing where units split off and rejoined
- the declining size of the army (note e.g. the crossing of the Berezina river on the retreat)
- the low winter temperatures during the retreat.
Étienne-Jules Marey first called notice to this dramatic depiction of the terrible fate of Napoleon's army in the Russian campaign, saying it "defies the pen of the historian in its brutal eloquence". Edward Tufte says it "may well be the best statistical graphic ever drawn" and uses it as a prime example in The Visual Display of Quantitative Information.
The beauty of Minard's map lies in its simplicity.
Fast forward almost two centuries: imagine it's the beginning of the 21st century and you've got
Complexity of an idea is inversely proportional to our understanding of it. In the Hirschey Lab, we try to achieve the simplicity and beauty that Minard achieved. Science is complex, but with a complete understanding of science, it can be simple.
Like this infographic? Check out these others (including one from the Hirschey Lab). Liked them a lot? First send us your CV to see if we have any positions for you, then click on the links for a few more.