Division D Robert L. Linn Distinguished Award Address by 2022 Awardee Howard Wainer. Graphs as Poetry: C. J. Minard, W. E. B. Du Bois, and Visualizing the Great Migration

Session Type: Invited Speaker Session

Abstract

The rich future of data visualizations was seen immediately upon their introduction. In 1786 Louis XVI, upon receiving a copy of William Playfair’s Atlas, exclaimed that they “spoke all languages and were very clear and easily understood “(Playfair, 1822). Thus, their value for bridging across all areas of research was immediately clear, yet even today visual displays of empirical information are too often thought to be just compact summaries that, at their best, can clarify a muddled situation. This is partially true, as far as it goes, but it omits the magic. We have long known that data visualization is an alchemist that can make good scientists great and transform great scientists into giants. In this talk we will see that sometimes, albeit too rarely, the combination of critical questions addressed by important data and illuminated by evocative displays can achieve a transcendent, and often wholly unexpected, result.

Sub Unit

• Division D - Measurement and Research Methodologies / Division D - Measurement and Research Methodology

Chair

• Mary Pitoniak, Educational Testing Service

Speaker

• Howard Wainer, Independent

Discussant

• Stephen Stigler, University of Chicago