Yale Digital Humanities Working Group

A Cultural History of Data Visualization; or, The Long Arc of Visual Display

Yale UniversityDigital Humanities Working Group

February 27, 2014

Lauren F. KleinGeorgia Institute of Technology

[email protected]

http://feltron.com/

Nick Felton, The 2006 Feltron Annual Reporthttp://feltron.com/ar06_01.html

http://daytum.com/

http://theyrule.net/

http://theyrule.net/

http://hint.fm/wind/

http://hint.fm/wind/

Paul Rucker, Proliferationhttp://paulrucker.com/projects/proliferation/

S.W.A.M.P CollectiveSpore 1.1

“Graphics reveal data” (13).

From The Works of the Honorable Robert Boyle (1744)

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

Joseph Priestley, A New Chart of History (1769)

“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.”

Thomas Jeffreys, A Chart of Universal History (1753)

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

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

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

“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.”

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

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)

William Playfair, “Preface to the Third Edition,” The Commercial and Political Atlas, 3rd edition (1801).

“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.”

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

William RankinVine of Liberty (1849)

Diagram and Statistical Record of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence (1858)Source: American Antiquarian Society

Consult American Antiquarian Society for image.

Gregor AischData Insights: A Visualization

Visualization insight

• “We discover unimagined effects, and we challenge imagined ones.”

--William Cleveland, Visualizing Data (1993)



--William Cleveland, Visualizing Data (1993)• “I see it now. Aha!”

--Martin Wattenberg, on data visualization (2007)



--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).

Thomas Jefferson1783 Catalog of Books

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

TOME: Interactive TOpic Model and MEtadata VisualizationLauren Klein and Jacob Eisenstein, co-PIsImage by Iris Sun

Mark Hansen and Ben Rubin Movable Type

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 Bookshttp://mappingbooks.blogspot.com/


… 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 Chancellorsvillehttp://hotchkiss.neatline.org/neatline-exhibits/

show/battle-of-chancellorsville/


… 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 Textshttp://www.viraltexts.org/


… 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, Clovehttp://www.fourpoundsflour.com/the-gallery-

data-visualization-of-a-timeline-of-taste/


… 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

Visualizing Advocacyhttps://visualisingadvocacy.org/resources/visualisationtools

A Carefully Selected List of Recommended Toolshttp://selection.datavisualization.ch/

A Cultural History of Data Visualization; or, The Long Arc of Visual Display

Yale UniversityDigital Humanities Working Group

February 27, 2014

Lauren F. KleinGeorgia Institute of Technology

[email protected]

Yale Digital Humanities Working Group

Education

Transcript of Yale Digital Humanities Working Group