W. E. B. Du Bois’ Hand-Drawn Infographics of African-American Life (1900)
William Edward Burghardt “W. E. B.” Du Bois — sociologist, historian, activist, Pan-Africanist, and prolific author — had also, it turns out, a mighty fine eye for graphic design. Du Bois studied at Fisk University, Humboldt University in Berlin, and Harvard (where he was the first African American to earn a doctorate), and in 1897 he became a professor of history, sociology and economics at Atlanta University.
Two years later he published his first major academic work The Philadelphia Negro (1899), a detailed and comprehensive sociological study of the African-American people of Philadelphia, based on his earlier field work. The following year, along with collaborators Thomas J. Calloway and Daniel Murray, Du Bois travelled to Europe, firstly to the First Pan-African Conference held in London, and then to the Paris Exposition to present a groundbreaking exhibition on the state of African-American life — “The Exhibit of American Negroes” — which, according to Du Bois, attempted to show
The history of the American Negro.
These are very pretty and I think most provide a great example of “beautiful art which does a fairly horrendous job of presenting information in a digestible and meaningful way”. The info-graphics are sometimes not designed well by 2017 standards, but what an awesome way to represent data! This must have looked revolutionary at the time of their presentation 117 years ago.
These are fantastically done.
Happy Black History Month!
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