I spent 50 hours drawing a line graph

Re:I spent 50 hours drawing a line graph by jinnyto on Sunday May 24, 2026 @08:57AM (#48256921)

Amazing process (such patience in this day and age!), and special thanks for sharing links to the data viz books! Tufte was my gateway too but I didn’t think to look into books on technical sketching, engineering drawing, and draftsmanship.

Love hand-drawn viz, recently I’ve been looking at the French National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE) and they have a great collection of all their reports, from pre-1900s to now. I especially appreciate this beautiful one about people with mental illness in the Seine department… from 1889. The typography is chef’s kiss https://www.bnsp.insee.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b52510983q/f49.item...

(After years of reading Hacker News this post motivated me to finally make an account and upvote. Data viz is so fun)

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Re:I spent 50 hours drawing a line graph by dolmen on Sunday May 24, 2026 @11:09AM (#48257870)

Thanks for the link to this archive. A very welcome contribution very a propos in relation to the article.

An amateur of old hand drawn maps (Michelin road, and older).

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Re:I spent 50 hours drawing a line graph by jakeydus on Sunday May 24, 2026 @02:25PM (#48259755)

If you enjoyed this I'd highly recommend checking out A Semiology of Graphics[0]. I was a little surprised to not see it mentioned in the article, but I recognize the article was less about types of data visualization than it was about how we create data vis.

[0]: https://books.google.com/books/about/Semiology_of_Graphics.h...

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Re:I spent 50 hours drawing a line graph by dougdude3339 on Monday May 25, 2026 @12:20AM (#48263358)

I dream of stumbling across a book like this in the used book store... I'm striking out finding a digital copy or availability at libraries.

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Re:I spent 50 hours drawing a line graph by jinnyto on Thursday May 28, 2026 @05:21PM (#48315665)

Happy to share! Goodness now that you mention Michelin road maps I didn't realize how classy even just the covers all look. http://cartesmich.free.fr/chronologie_a.php

And those maps... https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0308569100374714...

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Re:I spent 50 hours drawing a line graph by dougdude3339 on Monday May 25, 2026 @12:10AM (#48263320)

This is exactly what I hoped for when writing this article. The "Atlas de statistique graphique de la ville de Paris" from 1889 has stunning hand drafted data visuals I may have never seen unless you shared. Thank you for making an account and adding to this catalog of resources about data viz. I plan to add this to the list in my next update.

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Re:I spent 50 hours drawing a line graph by jinnyto on Thursday May 28, 2026 @05:15PM (#48315601)

You're very welcome! So happy to discuss and share all this together, such an underrated topic in my opinion... Looking forward to your next update.

This whole thing has got me going down the rabbit hole of looking at different countries' archives, here are some from the United States (also in 1889 for the fun of comparison):

- Progress Map for 1889, Cape Fear River Below Wilmington, North Carolina: https://catalog.archives.gov/id/518257160?objectPage=2 - Statistics relating to the Canal around "The Cascades," Columbia River Falls https://catalog.archives.gov/id/501103295?objectPage=2

I tried looking at the British and Irish national archives but couldn't find online images/PDFs of maps and charts, seems like they're for in-person consultation only.

And one more French one from 1906 for kicks because it's so ambitious. Years + bars per year, mapped onto Paris, per company, then split into 2 views (total passengers vs. average passengers per kilometre). Wow. Mouvement de la circulation à l'intérieur de Paris、1860-1900 (map from 1906): https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bd6t5253796z/f81

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