Robert “The Bobby Yaga” McNees
Robert “The Bobby Yaga” McNees  ·  2 months ago

Content Warning

French civil engineer Charles Joseph Minard was born #OTD in 1781. He was known for his contributions to information graphics, including his famous map of the losses suffered by Napoleon during the 1812 Russian campaign.

Writing about Minard's map, Edward Tufte said “It may well be the best statistical graphic ever drawn.”

Image: Charles Minard / Public domain

Minard’s map famously encodes multiple streams of data describing Napoleon’s disastrous 1812 Russia campaign. A thick beige, which grows narrower from the left edge (Europe) to the right edge (Moscow) of the image, shows the number of troops making up Napoleon’s force. A black line that narrows from right to left across the page shows the same number on the return journey. A plot at the bottom shows temperature on the journey, and numerous other piece of information are inscribed on the map.
Minard’s map famously encodes multiple streams of data describing Napoleon’s disastrous 1812 Russia campaign. A thick beige, which grows narrower from the left edge (Europe) to the right edge (Moscow) of the image, shows the number of troops making up Napoleon’s force. A black line that narrows from right to left across the page shows the same number on the return journey. A plot at the bottom shows temperature on the journey, and numerous other piece of information are inscribed on the map.
Minard’s map famously encodes multiple streams of data describing Napoleon’s disastrous 1812 Russia campaign. A thick beige, which grows narrower from the left edge (Europe) to the right edge (Moscow) of the image, shows the number of troops making up Napoleon’s force. A black line that narrows from right to left across the page shows the same number on the return journey. A plot at the bottom shows temperature on the journey, and numerous other piece of information are inscribed on the map.
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Robert “The Bobby Yaga” McNees
Robert “The Bobby Yaga” McNees  ·  2 months ago

Content Warning

The map shows six different types of data on a single two-dimensional plot: number of troops, temperature, latitude and longitude, distance traveled, direction of travel, and location at specific dates.

Tufte had a great rundown of Minard’s likely sources on his website. Alas, it seems to have vanished! But the Wayback Machine has cached copies.

https://web.archive.org/web/20200304024502/https://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/minard

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