#SWDchallenge: Napoleon's April

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The other day I was watching the recent Apple-produced movie Napoleon, featuring Joaquin Phoenix as Napoleon Bonaparte and Vanessa Kirby as his first wife Joséphine. 

I’m not a history buff by any means, but I have a passing knowledge of the French Revolution and of Napoleon’s brief reign in the early 19th century. While I did not necessarily know the details of each step in his various conquests and power consolidations, I was aware that the decision to invade Russia would be disastrous for Bonaparte.  

How did I know this? It’s because one of the world’s most famous data visualizations is specifically about his catastrophic march to Moscow, and subsequent winter retreat, in 1812.

Charles Minard’s famous visualization of Napoleon’s march to, and retreat from, Moscow in 1812.

Charles Minard’s visualization, hailed by many (Edward Tufte, most vocally) as one of the greatest achievements in graphic representation of data, shows us in brutal detail the shrinking size of Napoleon’s army as he marches from France all the way to Moscow, and then back home again in defeat. The width of the line shows the number of French soldiers; the map shows their position as well as the date the army passed each location; other dimensions included in the visual are the temperatures during the winter portion of the army’s march, the geographic features (such as rivers) affecting travel, and the moments when the army split into multiple forces of varying sizes.

Far be it from us to say we could improve upon this highly regarded visual. But that’s not to say that there aren’t other ways to visualize some or all of this data—and some of these approaches may be better suited for particular audiences or scenarios. As a statistical data visualization, Minard’s map succeeds in showing multiple aspects of a single time series within one unified, static view. At the same time, it demands its readers spend considerable time to engage with it, to learn how to read it, and to synthesize every aspect of the visual at one time—which may be a challenge.

Speaking of a challenge…

This month’s challenge

This month, your challenge is to use the same data Minard used for his map. Create an alternative visualization for Napoleon’s ill-fated march on Moscow. You could choose to build a map, a static visual, an infographic, an interactive website, a PowerPoint presentation, a dashboard, or a video…just about anything you like. 

NOTE: While you may be tempted to simply rebuild a replica of this famous graph in your own visualization tool of choice, that is NOT what the challenge is about. We are asking you to create, not re-create.

Share your creation in the SWD community by Tuesday, April 30 at 5PM PT. Take some time to browse others’ submissions and share your input via comments and datapoints during the month. We look forward to seeing your creative approaches!

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