Emma Willard, Temple of Time. Courtesy of Information Graphic Visionaries and David Rumsey Map Collection
A new book set honors the lives and legacies of three figures who fundamentally altered the way we communicate and organize data still today. Information Graphic Visionaries is a catalog trio dedicated to educator and entrepreneur Emma Willard, statistician and founder of modern nursing Florence Nightingale, and scientist Étienne-Jules Marey, who all brought insight and clarity to the modern world by conveying complex information in visually compelling and convincing manners. Edited by RJ Andrews of Info We Trust with art direction by Lorenzo Fanton, the series unveils these previously overlooked histories through newly discovered graphics and prominent works paired with contextual essays and annotations.
Through a combination of atlases, wall hangings, and textbook woodcut graphics, Emma Willard: Maps of History explores how Willard invented new conceptions of time and ultimately defined chronology in the United States. Florence Nightingale: Mortality & Health Diagrams contains the nurses’ persuasive designs that ultimately sparked vital reforms to the English health care system. And the Étienne-Jules Marey volume is the first English translation of the French scientist’s seminal text on data visualization, The Graphic Method, La Méthode Graphique, which was first published in 1885.
After launching May 11, Information Graphic Visionaries is already nearing its goal on Kickstarter, but you still have time to back the project.
Emma Willard, detail of Map of 1620. Courtesy of Information Graphic Visionaries and David Rumsey Map Collection
Emma Willard, Perspective Sketch. Courtesy of Information Graphic Visionaries and David Rumsey Map Collection
Florence Nightingale, Cholera Diagram by William Farr. Courtesy of Information Graphic Visionaries and the Wellcome Collection
Florence Nightingale, The Mortality in the Hospitals. Courtesy of Information Graphic Visionaries and the Wellcome Collection