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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.
#otd
in reply to Robert “The Bobby Yaga” McNees

Lisa Melton
mastodon - Link to source
Lisa Melton
• •
Between the time I drew underground comics and the longer time I developed software, I was an information graphics artist at various newspapers. Minard was a legend to us in that business. We all wanted to do work that clear and stylish. 👏
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