The visualization has something for everyone: a colorful visualization of population trends for the data geeks, a vintage look and feel for the hipsters, and the competitive aspect of comparing cities to each other for everyone else.
Mark Byrnes shares news of the graphic, and how it came to the Internet, for CityLab: "Originally published in the Statistical Atlas of the United States in 1898, Larry Gormley of HistoryShots (a company that designs and restores data visualizations) first came across this old census visualization over at David Rumsey's online map database. Compelled by its restrained use of shapes, colors, and lines, Gormley, who scours map and book fairs in his native New England, eventually tracked down a printed copy to restore."
"[The visualization's] design manages to neatly display over 450 data points using only 10 colors to differentiate dozens of cities. Once the viewer adjusts their eyes to the right-to-left timeline, one can see just how much the U.S. had grown in its first full century."
FULL STORY: A Brilliantly Restored 19th Century Visualization of U.S. City Population Shifts
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City of Albany
UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies
Mpact (formerly Rail~Volution)
Chaddick Institute at DePaul University
City of Piedmont, CA
Great Falls Development Authority, Inc.
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research