O exemplo de comunicação visual que o Gerson Mora trouxe há algumas semanas atrás, datado de 1946, assim como os posts que a Susana Pereira tem trazido também na sua coluna, são evidências da importância que o estudo da visualização de informação – jornalística, científica e outras – tem tido ao longo dos anos.

Realmente, a infografia está longe de ser uma novidade, e a visualização de informação faz parte da nossa história desde há muito tempo.

No Visual Loop Internacional é puiblicada, às segundas-feiras, uma compilação de infográficos, mapas, diagramas e outras formas de visualização ‘vintage’, e muitas delas chegam a ser quase tão antigas quanto o Brasil!

Aqui fica uma seleção dessas pérolas visuais, para termos como referência e inspiração:

Map of predominating sex (1872) | Francis Amasa Walker

(image:Francis Amasa Walker ,1872)

(Via Mapping the Nation)

Aviation in Perspective (1917) | S. W. Clatworthy

(image:S. W. Clatworthy,1917 )

The Solar System (1913)

(image: Andrees Allgemeiner Handatlas)

(Via prof. Michael Stoll’s Flickr)

A Map of Physics (1939)

(A 1939 Map of Physics)

(Via Strange Maps)

China as the centre of the world (1602)

(Created created in 1602 by Italian Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci)

(Via the Daily Mail)

Depthscrapers defy Earthquakes (1931)

Depthscrapers defy Earthquakes, published on Science and Mechanics magazine, 1935

(Via Modern Mechanix)

A Chronological Chart of the Visions of Daniel and John (1842)

Printed by Joshua Himes in 1842

(Via Visual Complexity)

Munster’s Map of the World (1544)

Originally published in Münster’s edition of Ptolemy’s Geographia and in Münster’s masterwork, Cosmographia in 1544.

(Via Florida History)

The World’s tallest buildings (1884)

Published by George F. Cram in Cram’s Unrivaled Family Atlas of the World, Chicago IL. Lithograph color print.

(Via Retronaut)

The wonders within your head (1938)

Look magazine, 1938

(Via Paul Carrington’s Flickr)

Inside the Earth (1863)

Earth cutaway (1863)

(Via El Biblionata on Flickr.)

How whiskey is distilled (1942)

Hiram Walker’s whiskey distillery, from Forbes magazine (1942)

Old Age Rejuvenator Centrifuge (1935)

(image: Science and Mechanics, 1935)

(Via Modern Mechanix)

Sarajevo before World War I (1905)

1905 Baedekers tourist’s map of the city of Serajevo

(Via First World War)

San Francisco Historical Creek Map (1890s)

San Francisco Historical Creek Map

(Via Oakland Museum of California)

Cellarius Harmonia Macrocosmica (1661)

(image: Andreas Cellarius, 1661)

(Via Wikimedia)

Occupation of Negroes and Whites in Georgia (1900)

(image: Prof. W.E.B. Du Bois and students, 1900)

(Via All my eyes)

Pendulum measuring (1718)

(image: Johann Leonhard Rost,1718)

(Via BibliOdissey)

Be on guard (1921)

(image: Dimitri Moor, 1921)

(Via Daily Mail)

United States and Great Britain in the World (1946) | P. Sargant Florence and Lella Secor Florence

(image:P. Sargant Florence and Lella Secor Florence,1946 )

(Via Brainpickings)

Rise of agricultural production, 1956-1960 (1982)

(image:Rise of agricultural production,1956-1960 )

(Via Ripetungi)

Mobile Pill-Box Fortress Mounts Two Six-Inch Guns (1940) | Popular Science

(image: Popular Science,1940)

(Via Modern Mechanix)

Magellanica (1616) | Petrus Bertius

(image:Petrus Bertius,1616 )

(Via Strange Maps)

The Moon’s Phases (c. 1840s) | Charles F Blunt

(image:Charles F Blunt,c. 1840s )

(Via BibliOdissey)

Space Patrol (1851) | Frank Tinsley

(image:Frank Tinsley, 1851 )

(Via James Vaughan on Flickr)

The House of Lords (1848) | The Guardian

(image:The Guardian, 1848)

(Via The Guardian Data Blog)

Wound Man (c. 1400s) | Claudius (Pseudo) Galen

(image:Wellcome Library,c. 1400s )

(Via Wellcome Library)

Pantograph (c. 1800s)

(image:The Canadian Centre for Architecture,c. 1800s )

(Via The Canadian Centre for Architecture)

Internal Ear (1908)

(image:Sue Clark’s,1908 )

(Via Sue Clark’s Flickr)

Magical Calendar (1582)

(image: peacay, 1582 )

(Via peacay on Flickr)

Statistical Atlas of the United States (1900)

(image:Prof. Michael Stoll,1900 )

(Via Prof. Michael Stoll on Flickr)

How to Know Your Guided Missiles (1950)

(image:Popular Science,1950 )

(Via Modern Mechanix)

Early Apollo Concept (1962) | Fortune Magazine

(image:James Vaughan,1962 )

(Via James Vaughan on Flickr)

Night-Club Map of Harlem (1932)

(image:Strange Maps,1932 )

(Via Strange Maps)

Geomancy Almanac (1552)

(image: BibliOdissey,1552 )

(Via BibliOdissey)

The book reader of the future (1935) | Everyday Science and Mechanics

(image:Paleofuture,1935 )

(Via Paleofuture)

Esta é apenas uma amostra da vastidão de exemplos de visualização de informação ao logo da história. Se quiser contribuir com alguns exemplos que conheça, deixe o seu comentário!