The Minard System

If you have any interest in information graphics, maps, or history, you know of the seminal flow map of Napoleon’s 1812 march into Russia by Charles- Joseph Minard, made famous by Edward Tufte, and considered to be one of the most magnificent data graphics ever produced. The Minard System explores the nineteenth-century civil engineer’s career and the story behind this masterpiece of multivariate data, as well as sixty of Minard’s other statistical graphics reflecting social and economic changes of the Industrial Revolution in Europe and around the world. These stunning drawings are from the collection of the École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées in Paris and have never before been published in their entirety.