We already know how important data is to our businesses and our lives. This isn’t a new discovery or one that only arrived with emerging technologies and analytical platforms. This interesting information came to us from BeSpacific in their article, “The untold story of how Florence Nightingale used data viz to save lives.”
Florence Nightingale was a lifelong information designer. As a child, she cataloged her seashell collection, and that was just the beginning. Nightingale had the ability to create attractive and understandable charts that not only informed, but persuaded.
Some of her work included charts that depicted things such as soldier mortality rates. It caught the attention of the Queen and Parliament and resulted in officials requiring more sanitary treatment conditions, and therefore, saving lives.
This lesser-known aspect of Nightingale’s life is part of a new book series currently seeking funding on Kickstarter called Information Graphic Visionaries. The collection tells the forgotten data visualization stories of major historical figures. The campaign has more than reached its goal so we can look forward to learning more in the future.
Melody K. Smith
Sponsored by Access Innovations, the world leader in thesaurus, ontology, and taxonomy creation and metadata application.
