Edward Rolf Tufte (born 1942) is an American statistician and professor emeritus of political science, statistics, and computer science at Yale University. He is noted for his writings on information design and as a pioneer in the field of data visualization. His books are great sources for examples of how to visualize and present data.
Tufte's website: http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/
A few images from Tufte's books:
Above: Probably the best statistical graphic ever drawn, this map by Charles Joseph Minard portrays the losses suffered by Napoleon's army in the Russian campaign of 1812. Beginning at the Polish-Russian border, the thick band shows the size of the army at each position. The path of Napoleon's retreat from Moscow in the bitterly cold winter is depicted by the dark lower band, which is tied to temperature and time scales.
above: Timetable for Java Railroad line, 1937. In Tufte 1990. (from seeing complexity blog)
not in Tufte's book but also of interest:
above: map by Olivier H. Beauchesne from: http://scimaps.org/maps/browse/ (lots of great examples at this site)
I find that the New York Times often has fantastic 'infographics' that show data in very clear and fascinating ways, such as:
above: visualizations show the top organizations and personalities for every year from 1985 to 2001. Connections between these people & organizations are indicated by lines. (from http://www.flickr.com/photos/blprnt/sets/72157613381549987/)
frequency of words used by political candidates
For more NYT infographics, see http://www.smallmeans.com/new-york-times-infographics/
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