{"id":27098,"date":"2023-07-13T11:00:55","date_gmt":"2023-07-13T15:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/?p=27098"},"modified":"2023-10-10T09:49:28","modified_gmt":"2023-10-10T13:49:28","slug":"revealing-data-visualizations-in-historical-collections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/2023\/07\/13\/revealing-data-visualizations-in-historical-collections\/","title":{"rendered":"Revealing Data: Visualizations in Historical Collections"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Adam Korengold ~
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

Data visualization is a new and quickly evolving discipline. While the modern form of the practice often uses complex IT tools, the practice of using charts, graphs, and visual imagery to uncover data\u2019s meaning is not new. With a collection spanning from the eleventh century to the present, the National Library of Medicine (NLM) holds many examples of how medicine and science have used visuals to communicate insights.<\/p>\n

A Brief History of Data Visualization<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The first popular graphical statistician was William Playfair, a Scottish political economist whose 1786 Commercial and Political Atlas<\/em><\/a> visualized economic data. Seventy-five years later, the London physician John Snow created what may be the first, and most influential, medical data visualization. Amidst a cholera epidemic<\/a> in the early 1850s, and a tension between using statistics for pattern recognition only, and using data as part of a methodological approach, his map fundamentally changed how clinicians, researchers, and the public use data.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
John Snow\u2019s map showing the location of cholera deaths in relation to the location of the Broad Street water pump in south London signaled a fundamental change in how medical science uses data to improve public health.
Courtesy Wellcome Library<\/em><\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Based on data that he had gathered from his own research, Snow created a map showing the locations of fatal cases in relation to where water pumps were located.<\/p>\n

Visualizations in the NLM Historical Collections<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Here are several ways that pieces in NLM\u2019s digital collections visualize data for showing research insights, mapping, and public health.<\/p>\n

At the most basic level, data visualization illustrates research findings for diverse audiences. One of the best examples of this comes from the extraordinary career of Florence Nightingale<\/a>, and her study of deaths in British military hospitals during the Crimean War, titled \u201cDiagram of the Causes of Mortality in the Army in the East<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
\u201cDiagram of the Causes of Mortality in the Army in the East,\u201d in “A Contribution to the Sanitary History of the British Army during the Late War with Russia,” 1859. Florence Nightingale\u2019s diagram of the causes of military deaths via preventable causes led to significant advances in military medicine.
National Library of Medicine #101598842<\/em><\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Dating from the same period as Snow\u2019s cholera map, Nightingale\u2019s rotary diagrams show the difference between deaths from wounds and other injuries (in red), and the much greater scale of deaths from preventable causes, such as cholera and other communicable diseases. This visualization was also instrumental in advancing medical practice in times of war.<\/p>\n

Process and the scientific method are also an essential part of medical practice. Sometimes the most insightful data visualizations do no more than show how scientists achieved a particular objective, providing documentary evidence of how modern genetics came to be. A prime example comes from the noted geneticist Marshall Nirenberg. Nirenberg was able to decipher how DNA sequences<\/a> direct the body to assemble amino acids.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
Nirenberg’s handwritten genetic code chart, 1965. Marshall Nirenberg\u2019s genetic code chart visualizes his research process.
Profiles in Science, National Library of Medicine<\/em><\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The resulting code chart (Marshall Nirenberg Papers, 1965) is made of six pieces of graph paper taped together. Columns are labeled for each of the amino acids, and each one of the genetic codes is noted down the left margin. The chart shows numerous edits\u2014so it serves as a living document of the founding days of molecular biology<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Maps are sometimes the ideal way to visualize data because they apply a data set to a physical structure. Similarly to John Snow working with cholera, the Paris city statistician, Jacques Bertillon, published a major study of the prevalence of influenza<\/a>, including visualizations of infection and death by age and geographic location, in 1892.<\/p>\n

Maps can use a familiar structure, like a map of the world in 1943, showing the prevalence of malaria<\/a>, titled \u201cThis is Ann\u2026 she drinks blood!\u201d (Special Service Division, Army Service Forces, War Department: U.S. G.P.O., 1943). A mosquito-borne disease, malaria was a particular problem in North Africa and southeast Asia during the Second World War, where Allied troops were fighting.<\/p>\n

\"Illustration<\/a>
This data visualization incorporating a character by Dr. Seuss shows the prevalence of malaria across the world during World War II.
National Library of Medicine #101439358<\/em><\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This visualization uses shades of red to show intensity of malaria infection, clearly meant for a wartime audience. The framing device is Ann the anopheles mosquito, whom eagle-eyed readers will recognize as the creation of no less than Theodore Geisel, more widely known as Dr. Seuss<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Maps aren\u2019t always geographic. This example titled \u201cThe Human Genome Map \u201d (American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1990), is one of the first visualizations of the human genome<\/a>. It is hard to understate the value of the full map of the human genome to the right, which is the basis for so many advancements in medicine and health over the past three decades.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
This map, dating from 1990, shows the fully decoded human genome.
National Library of Medicine #101449383<\/em><\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It\u2019s useful to visualize public health information in ways that are easy to understand and not limited to language or level of data literacy. NLM\u2019s collection includes visualizations that serve the public interest and speak to issues of public health, like this Soviet-era poster<\/a> titled \u201cMalaria: Severe Contagious Disease.\u201d It shows the fluctuating fever that is a hallmark of the disease (USSR Central Institute of Sanitary Education, 1942). At that time, Russian troops fought (literally) feverishly to repel the Nazi invasion. As we saw in the Dr. Seuss map above, southern Russia, where much of the fighting took place, was also an area of concern for malaria.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
This Soviet-era visualization familiarizes viewers with the intermittent fever that is characteristic of malaria.
National Library of Medicine #233259671<\/em><\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The headline reads \u201cMalaria-Severe Contagious Disease.\u201d The clearly uncomfortable patient in the main illustration shows how debilitating and exhausting that malaria, and the graph is a useful piece of messaging to convey an essential feature of malaria for an audience of clinicians, patients, and the public to understand a disease with which they may not otherwise be familiar.<\/p>\n

Similarly, this example of the relationship between taxes on liquor, and per capita consumption<\/a> (Koller, 1929) between 1919 and 1922 shows, in clear visual terms, that higher taxes are associated with less drinking per person in Great Britain, Belgium, Germany, France, and Switzerland.<\/p>\n

\"Bottles<\/a>
This chart, in French, shows an inverse relationship between excise taxes on alcohol and alcohol consumption in several European countries.
National Library of Medicine #101449729<\/em><\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

How to Find Visualizations in NLM\u2019s Digital Collections<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s easy to find visualizations in NLM\u2019s digital collections. The simplest way is to use your Web browser to navigate to https:\/\/collections.nlm.nih.gov<\/a>. From the dropdown menu, choose \u201cstill images,\u201d and then use the search box to specify the types of information of interest, like maps, visualizations, diagrams, or specific topics of interest like influenza, HIV, or the human genome (See the diagram below).<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Use this diagram to see how to find data visualizations in NLM\u2019s digital collections.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Beyond their value in documenting how medical science has shown its findings visually, these examples help today\u2019s medical researchers to make their findings more resonant for the people they serve.<\/p>\n

Explore other data visualizations, both modern and historical in our Revealing Data<\/a> series, which explores what researchers from a variety of disciplines are learning from centuries of preserved data, and how their work can help us think about the future preservation and uses of the data we collect today.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>Adam Korengold is an Analytics Lead in NLM\u2019s Office of Computer and Communications Systems. He works with NLM staff to analyze and visualize data about how the library\u2019s digital products are reaching audiences. He also teaches in the graduate Data Analytics and Visualization program at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, Maryland.
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