Historical Viz Digest: Issue 5
June 2019: geometric psychology, thousands of periodic tables, and demographic maps galore!
The Data Visualization Society’s historical-viz channel continues to surface fascinating charts, maps, and information design from before 1990. This month we made a surprise turn toward maps that plot out pretty much everything: wages, religions, poverty, french food, urbanism, and civil disobedience to be exact. We also found the first photo to prove the curvature of the Earth. Aight, let’s get to it:
In an interesting tie-in with Stephanie Evergreen’s amazing article kicking off our Nightingale launch, we start this month’s recap by exploring Florence Kelley’s “Hull-House Maps.” The great Atlas of Places site explains the importance and significance of Kelly’s work:
“The Hull-House maps were groundbreaking in both sociology and cartography, pioneering the method of mapping ‘social and demographic characteristics of a population within a geographical area’ over time to initiate social change (Deegan). The maps document socioeconomic data from slum neighbourhoods in the midst of immigration into the United States… The maps are also an important example of the growth in research work done by women in centres like Hull-House, while social science as a discipline was still forming in traditional academic institutions. They were “the single most important work by American women social scientists before 1900.”
These maps are part of a series called “Persuasive Cartography” from The PJ Mode Collection at the Cornell University Library. It is the source of a number of items which you’ll notice this month. Their curators included some additional notes on the map on their website:
“These four maps parallel the nationality maps, in this case detailing the wages of Hull-House’s neighbors. Every residential dwelling is color-coded to indicate the weekly wages of the residents, in one of five separate classes, from under $5 per week to over $20 per week (a category “largely composed of land and property owners, saloon and shop keepers, and those in business for themselves.”) “The white lots that are so numerous east of the river indicate brothels,” where wages “vary widely.” Note the choice of white to designate brothels, rather than black or red often used to connote ignorance or sin. The occupants of the brothels are “almost invariably” American, predominantly from Eastern states, and a mixture of black and white.”
Legend:
Blue — Roman-Catholic
Red — Reformed (i.e. Calvinist)
Dark brown — Greek-Catholic (or Uniate)
Yellow — Jewish
Very light blue — Lutheran
To which
answered with yet another annotated map “by English social scientist, Charles Booth, known for his depictions of working life in 19th-Century England. An early example of social cartography, each street is coloured to indicate the income and social class of its inhabitants.”
The LSE library has made all 13 maps available here. A superb and eye-opening collection, “the Maps Descriptive of London Poverty are perhaps the most distinctive product of Charles Booth’s Inquiry into Life and Labour In London (1886–1903). An early example of social cartography, each street is coloured to indicate the income and social class of its inhabitants.”
“Carte Gastronomique de la France” by Alain Bourguignon from 1932 shows us the regional cuisine for each region and city in France. He elaborates “There are many versions of “Gastronomique” maps, from the 1800s to the 1960s but what I like about this one is the use of text to showcase the range of French cuisine.”
Another delightful part of the “Persuasive Cartography” group from The PJ Mode Collection at Cornell University Library, the collector notes “On the verso of the folder is “Gourmets! Touristes! . . . documentez-vous sur les Specialities et les Crus des Regions que vous allez visiter” and a quote from Brillat-Savarin: “Dis-moi ce que tu manges, je te dirai qui tu es! [Tell me what you eat and I will tell you who you are].”
This National Geo supplement from 1936 shows the highest-ever photo taken at the time. Of note is the very subtle designation of the horizon line proving the earth’s curvature. There are many other aspects of this image/map that are equally interesting too, such as the highlighted rivers and + signs designating natural monuments like the Devil’s Tower from “Close Encounters” fame. The text of the bottom is full of curious details, like the off-hand mention that this is actually an infra-red photo. It’s pretty big, so I think you can read it all.
Much to my surprise, there are thousands of periodic tables, and it turns out the “Internet Database of Periodic Tables” warehouses all of them. It features amazing alternate versions to Mendeleev’s first table, such as Romanoff’s System of 1934 or the Harkins & Hall’s Periodic Table of 1916. But these are only two of over a thousand versions. But Dr. Mark R Leach is more than happy to tell you more: “I seem to be filling part of the scientific story between the periodic table and the established disciplines of organic and inorganic chemistry, an area that is poorly covered by traditional texts. I call this new science ‘chemogenesis’, as it deals with the emergence of mechanism and chemical reactivity.” If periodic tables are your bag, then this is your new favorite site!
Speaking of politics, this poster promoting a National Student Strike on May 6, 1970, is about as provocative as it gets. It is a map, an illustration, and an incendiary call to action. The striking dynamics of the hand-drawn illustration overlaid on a US map with participating schools typed onto the map itself is oddly compelling.
The collector PJ Mode comments “This poster is not listed in OCLC, and it’s not known where or by whom it was made. The only other copy I’ve been able to find is in the archive of the “April Third Movement.” One of the most interesting details is that this map was probably published just before, or even on May 4th, because it does not reference the Kent State shootings.
Our group had a few comments:
:“That is all very interesting. I often think to myself what are we engaged in now that we will one day look back at through the lens of history and say “damn, that was really messed up!”
Stephen Singer:
“If it weren’t such deadly serious content it could almost be a parody… which really speaks to the popular triumph of irony. I have a hard time imagining that something like this would be produced today related to something with such relatively broad support. I guess it speaks to the division of labor in the production, but it also seems like an odd choice to overprint such a laborious drawing with no concern about the legibility of the college labels and to choose to use a typewriter to produce those labels.”
The writer Maria Popova previously covered Cook’s work and completes the story. “Eventually, Betts enlisted the help of a woman by the name of Louisa S. Cook to edit what became the published volume. Primitive and metaphysically clouded as they may be, his diagrams endure as a visionary early attempt to map human consciousness at the improbable intersection of mathematics and moral philosophy, long before the birth of neuroscience and even before the dawn of modern psychology as we know it.”
Cook (and Bett’s) work came at a strange and wondrous time when science and the spiritual freely mixed, ultimately best known in Helena Blavatsky’s Theosophical Society. The amazing advances in technology and scientific theory in the 19-century were mirrored by interests in eastern mysticism and the occult. The resulting Theosophical combinations of scientific theory with dream analysis, philosophy, and design aesthetics allowed for ideas like Cook’s to germinate into a free-thinking web of associations and influences.
I don't normally point to other articles that I've written, but an interesting parallel can be found in the re-discovered artwork of Hilma af Klint; an artist and spirit medium who crafted a staggering body of artwork in a similar vein, then locked it away in secret for 20 years after her death. A few months ago I also wrote in detail on her work as it relates to a similar overlap of “divine mathematics” and spiritual aesthetics.
Our buddy
also provided the last chart we’ll look at in this edition of the historical-viz roundup. The “Relative Efficiency of Primitive and Modern Means of Transport,” in 1943 by the United States Army Service Force. This chart features a set of maps and diagrams exhibiting transport efficiency for human porters, pack animals, horse teams, railroad, ‘liberty ship’, truck, and airplane.
It comes from the “Atlas of World Maps” created for the Study of Geography in the Army Specialized Training Program, created under the direction of visionary geographer S.W. Boggs for the Department of State. Boggs was a savvy designer, trained in New York, then worked at the Library of Congress. At the time of his death in 1954, he was considered the world’s chief expert on international boundaries.
Boggs went on to work with noted mid-century illustrator Boris Artzybasheff, who also worked at Fortune Magazine under Will Burtin a few years later in 1945. This cycle of influence that extends from the wartime government to the world of publishing, advertising and business is a pattern that is common during this moment in history. I suspect we’ll continue to explore it (wink).
But back to the “Atlas of World Maps” — the preference states: “Most of the maps in this atlas are original” and “international boundaries on the maps are as of 1937.” It all makes sense given Bogg’s reputation. His attention to details and mastery of technique are equally on view in this amazing document. His use of sinusoidal equal-area projection is as distinctive as the modernist styling on the transportation map above.
That’s it for this time! Thanks as always to the entire historical-vizchannel and my co-moderator Stephanie Tuerk. We’ll be back with more next month!
More articles in the series:
