文档介绍：Milestones in the history of thematic cartography, statistical
graphics, and data visualization∗
Michael Friendly
August 24, 2009
1 Introduction
The only new thing in the world is the
history you don’t know.
Harry S Truman, quoted by David
McCulloch in Truman
The graphic portrayal of quantitative information has deep roots. These roots reach
into histories of thematic cartography, statistical graphics, and data visualization, which
are intertwined with each other. They also connect with the rise of statistical thinking up
through the 19th century, and developments in technology into the 20th century. From
above ground, we can see the current fruit; we must look below to see its pedigree and
germination. There certainly have been many new things in the world of visualization;
but unless you know its history, everything might seem novel.
A brief overview
The earliest seeds arose in geometric diagrams and in the making of maps to aid in navigation and explo-
ration. By the 16th century, techniques and instruments for precise observation and measurement of physical
quantities were well-developed— the beginnings of the husbandry of visualization. The 17th century saw
great new growth in theory and the dawn of practice— the rise of analytic geometry, theories of errors of
measurement, the birth of probability theory, and the beginnings of demographic statistics and “political
arithmetic”. Over the 18th and 19th centuries, numbers pertaining to people—social, moral, medical, and
economic statistics began to be gathered in large and periodic series; moreover, the usefulness of these bod-
ies of data for planning, for governmental response, and as a subject worth of study in its own right, began
to be recognized.
This birth of statistical thinking was also panied by a rise in visual thinking: diagrams were used
to illustrate mathematical proofs and functions; nomograms were developed to aid calculations; various
graphic forms were i