Alexander von Humboldt and the Rise of Infographics
How an early scientist’s data visualizations led to groundbreaking discoveries that would impact the world for centuries
“Graphic delineations of nature, arranged according to systematic views, are not only suited to please the imagination, but may also, when properly considered, indicate the grades of the impressions of which I have spoken.” —Alexander von Humbolt, ‘Cosmos: A Sketch of a Physical Description of the Universe: Volume One,’ 1858
2019 has arguably been the year of rediscovering Alexander von Humboldt. Scientist, explorer, cartographer, and quintessential polymath, this past September marked the 250th anniversary of his birth; a much more subdued celebration as compared to the 100th anniversary, which included lavish parties around the world, including a parade in New York City and the unveiling of a bronze bust in Central Park.
Born in Prussia to a wealthy family, Humboldt was drawn to the sciences from an early age. In 1799, he embarked on a five-year expedition to South America that would make him famous. His death-defying accounts of capsizing on the Orinoco river, scaling Chimborazo, and surviving all sorts of jungle diseases and predators won the world over. Humboldt’s adventures and prestige led to more species and places being named after him than any other person. Yet while many have celebrated his achievements in founding or revolutionizing multiple fields of science, from ecology, meteorology, and mineralogy, to the social sciences such as anthropology, what is often taken for granted is how much of a pioneer Humboldt was in the realm of data visualizations.
Alexander von Humboldt was first and foremost a scientist. He measured everything (so much so that he had over a dozen mules just for carrying instruments on his expeditions), and always strove to explain the physical relationships in the world around him. Because of the enormous amount of data he collected, Humboldt worked at visualizing his data to make connections and correlations. As a result, he created some of the earliest precursors to what we would now call infographics. Inspired by the plots and graphs of William Playfair before him, Humboldt liked to map out his data. For Humboldt, illustrations were how he made sense of the data. In the quote at the beginning of this article, Humboldt expresses how the methodical yet artistic arrangement of information can elucidate complex relationships in the natural world.
In Naturgemälde, which some have argued is history’s first infographic, Humboldt depicts a staggering amount of information about plant species, elevation, and even topography of South American volcanoes. This visualization was how Humboldt displayed the connection between the plant communities and the physical characteristics of the environment. It is undeniably as beautiful and elegant as it is informative and intuitive. However, what is less talked about is what’s on the wings of the illustration. Here, Humboldt lays out data on temperature, humidity, soil measurements, and more, again organized by elevation to match the drawing itself. This infographic is a perfect example of what Humboldt does best; he not only makes a complex topic approachable but does so accurately and provides detailed scientific evidence. This piece appeals to multiple audiences, from the layperson to the expert, an achievement many data visualizations strive to accomplish.
While Naturgemälde might be his most widely known artistic creation, Humboldt would go on to produce many other influential visualizations. His diagram on global isotherms gave rise to modern climatology. Starting with just a table of mean temperatures values taken from around the world, Humboldt made the simple, but at the time revolutionary, step of plotting them. This simple overlay of temperature curves on top of a latitude and longitude allows viewers to quickly determine the differences in climate. This is made even easier with the annotations of various city locations throughout. While writing on the topic of isolines, Humboldt said, “if instead of geographic maps, we only possessed tables covering latitude, longitude, and altitude, a great number of curious connections that continents manifest in their forms and the surface inequalities would stayed forever lost.” Humboldt clearly understood the contribution of powerful data visualizations to the advancement of knowledge.
Humboldt also delved into the realms of geopolitics and economics with his treatise A Political Essay on the Kingdom of New Spain. Within these pages, Humboldt included a variety of useful maps, from trade routes of precious metals to potential locations for a canal between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans (the Panama Canal being the worst option out of nine in Humboldt’s opinion). As evidence of his influence, Humboldt was granted an invitation to dine with President Thomas Jefferson, who wanted to know more about America’s new neighbor after the Louisiana Purchase.
Humboldt’s fascination with analyzing relationships led him to be one of the first to suggest human-induced climate change. His observations of land-cover change throughout Spanish colonies impressed upon him the idea that we would alter the environment in ways that would be detrimental to our continued existence. While he did not know about greenhouse gas emissions, Humboldt was keenly aware of the soil erosion and droughts brought about by vast deforestation for sugar plantations and precious metal extraction. But again, it’s his data visualizations that had the most significant impact. In 2015, scientists revisited Humboldt’s famous Naturgemälde and decided to compare current vegetation elevation ranges with those Humboldt documented. What they found was that the snowline is retreating and plant species are moving upslope. This realization was only made possible through the systematic approach to depicting data that made Humboldt ahead of his time.
Today, Humboldt’s work continues to be relevant. He knew the power of communicating his findings to a variety of audiences and his illustrations provided the tools for marketing that knowledge; he was a shameless self-promoter and, as a result, was one of the most well-known and influential scientists throughout history. The fact that we are still making discoveries by using some of his earliest infographics proves the effectiveness and timelessness of a great visualization. The impact that a single drawing can have throughout centuries illustrates just how important visualizing data can be in making sense of our world. Through his visualizations, Humboldt was able to bring science to the public realm and reveal patterns that would change the course of science. As the field of data visualization continues to evolve and move forward, it is vital that we look back and remember the earliest practitioners and just what can be accomplished.
