Data visualisation, from 1987 to today – The Economist

Data visualisation, from 1987 to today – The Economist
Looking back over 30 years of making charts and maps for The Economist
If you attend a conference about data visualisation in 2018 you will probably hear at least one speaker refer to William Playfair’s early line charts of prices and wages published in 1786. Failing that, you can count on someone to refer to Florence Nightingale’s rose diagram of battlefield sanitary conditions or Charles Minard’s depiction of Napoleon’s disastrous losses during the Russian campaign of 1812.