If you've look at many Victorian political cartoons, read much Victorian prose, or, hell, seen any Victorian wallpaper, you will not be surprised to learn that Victorian infographics were fussy, busy, a bit baroque—and rather lovely to look at.
Unlike a lot of modern infographics, these weren't really being made for consumption by the general public in popular magazines and newspapers. I mean, I know that everybody loves to talk about Americans being dumber and having shorter attention spans, but I'm skeptical of the idea that, even 150 years ago, there were that many laypeople sitting down to breakfast with "Humboldt's Distribution of Plants in Equinoctial America." Which is the title of the infographic pictured above. Looking at the BibliOdysssy blog, where this collection comes from, it seems like most of the images are taken from textbooks, scientific manuscripts and reports, and a variety of atlases and reference books. This is the kind of stuff you'd find at at university library, not on the front page of the New York Times.
I happen to really like this plant distribution infographic, but it's hardly the most striking one in the collection. In particular, there are some great geography images (with color!), and beautiful time tables that actually start getting closer to a more modern sort of graphic design.
Via Jason Pontin
Image: Some rights reserved by peacay
