![]() According to Tableau, “Coxcombs help make seasonal patterns visible and deemphasize small differences while providing a nicer image” than many other types of charts. Nightingale had a knack for “devising graphic methods,” and her innovation and imagination show in this visually complex, data-centric representation. She summarized these conclusions in what has come to be known as a rose diagram, polar area graph or coxcomb diagram- the first of its kind. The method of a message like hers matters, and by creating something that the Queen actually wanted to look at, Nightingale was able to hold her attention and motivate her to act based on her data’s conclusions. While Nightingale herself found “the sight of a long column of figures “perfectly reviving”,” she clearly recognized that reaching the people who had the pockets and the power to effect change required presenting her data in a way that would make them want to. This aid has therefore been called in to give greater clearness to the numerical results.” ( p1 ). The first sentence of the book reads: “Diagrams are of great utility for illustrating certain questions of vital statistics by conveying ideas on the subject through the eye, which cannot be so readily grasped when constrained in figures. Nightingale also wrote and privately published the illustrated report Mortality of the British Army during this period, which was intended to educate a mass audience. Partially because of this diagram, Nightingale achieved her goal and “procured their support for a Royal Commission on the health of the army,” which was to later revolutionize and reform war medicine and wider sanitation practices. It is in this book that she included ‘Mortality Diagram,’ facing page 311.įew copies of this book were ever printed, but she sent one of them to Queen Victoria, and when Nightingale returned from Crimea, she was summoned by the Queen and Prince Albert. Her first book on the topic, Notes on Matters Affecting Health, Efficiency, and Hospital Administration of the British Army (1858) was 850 pages long and she wrote it in two years. Florence Nightingale is almost unique in that she not only did the primary research in person (in this case, inventorying the cause of death of thousands of soldiers for two years), but also wrote so extensively and comprehensively about it. It is rare for data artists to actually assemble data themselves through primary research, though Joseph Charles Minard was famous for this. Over her years in Turkey, when she wasn’t working 20 hours a day as a nurse, she meticulously collected the data she needed herself. She believed strongly (indeed, religiously ) in affecting change through statistics, and the Crimean War was the first chance she got to put this in practice in the field, though there was essentially no existing data with which she could prove her observations. In addition to nursing, Nightingale had also been passionate about statistics and mathematics her entire life, and her family had been wealthy and well-connected enough to foster her aptitude into a skill set that gave her the ability to meaningfully contribute to this field. Hospital conditions were especially appalling because “there were no blankets, beds, furniture, food, or cooking utensils, and there were rats and fleas everywhere.” Unsurprisingly, far more men were dying there, of largely preventable illness, than on the battlefield or from wounds sustained on it. She observed that while the battles took their toll, by far the greatest killer was not the war itself but the de-prioritization of the soldiers fighting it.Ī lack of resources allocated for hygienic facilities, proper nutrition, adequate medical care and a host of other factors had led illness (preventable or mitigable zymotic diseases) to skyrocket in hospitals and camps. Nightingale’s infographic has the distinction of being one of the first data visualizations to shape policy in this way, and with its striking, innovative, and adaptive design, it is not surprising that it is still regarded as one of the most influential infographics of all time.ĭuring the British campaign in Crimea, Nightingale served as “Superintendent of the female nursing establishment in the English General Military Hospitals in Turkey.” During her posting, she saw in cold detail the means by which soldiers were dying in droves. These would later become standard practice worldwide, and eventually help save the lives of countless soldiers throughout history. Florence Nightingale ’s legendary 1858 infographic ‘ Diagram of the causes of mortality in the Army in the East’ (hereafter referred to as ‘Mortality Diagram’) helped convince Queen Victoria to adapt Nightingale’s recommendations for war medicine and sanitation practices. Exceptional data visualizations do have the power to effect widespread change.
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