2-D Picture Tells Sweeping 6-D Story

19th Century Map of Napoleon's Disastrous Moscow March = 21st Century Communicators' Inspiration

Time . Temperature . Location . Direction . Size . Losses

This 1869 map by Frenchman Charles Joseph Minard shows the entire Napoleonic campaign against Russia. Minard first distills all the relevant information from a mass of data. He then organizes this information - ruthlessly - for the single purpose of delivering a complete, coherent story that is unmistakable, and utterly devastating.

Edward Tufte (analytical design expert and Emeritus Yale
University professor) said Minard's map "may well be the best
statistical graphic ever drawn."

(It) "portrays the losses suffered by Napoleon's army in the Russian campaign of 1812. Beginning at the left on the Polish-Russian border near the Nieman, the thick band shows the size of the army (422,000 men) as it invaded Russia. The width of the band indicates the size of the army at each position. In September, the army reached Moscow with 100,000 men. 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. The remains of the Grand Armee struggled out of Russia with 10,000 men. Minard's graphic tells a rich, coherent story with its multivariate data, far more enlightening than just a single number bouncing along over time. Six variables are plotted: the size of the army, its location on a two-dimensional surface, direction of the army's movement, and temperature on various dates during the retreat from Moscow." -- Edward Tufte, Envisioning Information

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