Infographics old and new: top data visualisations, in pictures

There is an infographic boom going on out there - with the internet flooded with data visualisations of the way we fight war, how we use Twitter, what music we like and how we use the, er, internet. But new as these are, there's a long tradition of telling stories using graphics. Information Graphics from Taschen , which includes work from the Guardian such as our public spending chart , tells the story of how information graphics came to rule our world. We've selected some of those from the past - to contrast with some key infographics from the past few years - albeit missing out hundreds of examples we could have chosen from the years inbetween. These are some of the images. What have we missed and which ones do you like? Let us know in the comments field below. Information Graphics from the Guardian bookstore at a discount price of £35.99 1858 Histoire Universelle This Table of Universal History was published in Paris. It visualises the complete history of humankind, top down, from the creation of Adam and Eve to the then present day. Individual cultures are depicted as rivers. Credit: Eug. Pick, 1858 Paris 1926 Kahn In his educational books on health and anatomy, german physician Fritz Kahn repeatedly drew on the old analogy of human body and machines. This poster from 1926 visualises human metabolism as a process of industrial production. Credit: Fritz Kahn . Stuttgart 1926 © von Debschitz 1940 Geis In the 1930s, magazines like Fortune or McCall's developed a vivid visual language for statistical data. In this graphic for McCall's, Irving Geis visualised data concerning the population of the Americas, e.g. an ethnic breakdown and the number of poor people. Credit: Irving Geis, ca. 1940 © Sandy Geis 2006 Esquire Body Parts. Project Info: Esquire, magazine article, 2006, UK. Design: Peter Grundy (Grundini), Art Direction: Alex Breuer 2006 This is indexed This is Indexed. Project Info: This is Indexed blog, since 2006, USA Design: Jessica Hagy 2007 Stanford Two Mindsets. Project Info: Stanford, magazine article, 2007, USA Data Source: Carol Dweck: Mindset: The New Psychology of Success", 2006. Design: Nigel Holmes 2008 Ward Shelley Frank Zappa Chart. Project Info: Painting, 2008, USA Artist: Ward Shelley 2008 Mundo Estranho The Greatest Curiosities of the Human Body, Project Info: Mundo Estranho, magazine article, 2008, Brazil Research: Fabio Volpe, Yuri Vasconscelos Design: Alessandra Kalko, Illustration: Gabriel Silveira 2008 New York Times Exposed to Dungeons & Dragons Early in Life. "Geek Love", The New York Times, newspaper article, 2008, USA. Design: Sam Potts. Art Direction: Brian Rea 2009 CNN Traffic Analysis, Project Info: CNN, website, 2009, USA. Data Source: Webstats Internal Server Logs; Omniture SiteCatalyst; International Telecommunications Union; United Nations Population Division; AT&T Labs Research; Nielsen Online; Gartner Research Design: Nicholas Felton 2009 Condé Nast Shell's Big Dig. Project Info: Condé Nast Portfolio, magazine article, 2009, USA. Research: Jeff VanDam Design: John Grimwade, Grace Lee, Art Direction: Robert Priest, Illustration: Bryan Christie 2009 IEE Mission(s) to Mars. Project Info: IEEE Spectrum, magazine article, 2009, USA. Data Source: Cornell University; European Space Agency; NASA; RussianSpaceWeb.com Design: Bryan Christie, Joe Lertola, Art Direction: Mark Montgomery, Michael Solita 2009 Mark On Hold Hold on. Project Info: Mark, magazine article, 2009, Netherlands. Data Source: SkyscraperPage.com; Emporis.com; Oobject.com; BBC News Design: Theo Deutinger, Barbara Weingartner 2010 Medallandssandur Medallandssandur. Project Info: A blend of the sound specters form sonar and whale song. From a series of drawings, 2010, Norway / Iceland. Design: Torgeir Husevaag 2010 GOOD The Digital Dump. Project Info: "The Growing E-Waste Situation", GOOD, website, 2010, USA. Data Source: CBS News; ABI Research; US EPA; Basel Action Network; Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition. Research: Brian Wolford Design: Andrew Effendy (Column Five Media), Art Direction: Ross Crooks 2010 Beer The Very Many Varieties of Beer. Project Info: Poster, 2010, USA Design: Ben Gibson, Patrick Mulligan (Pop Chart Lab) NEW! Buy our book • Facts are Sacred: the power of data (on Kindle) More open data Data journalism and data visualisations from the Guardian World government data • Search the world's government data with our gateway Development and aid data • Search the world's global development data with our gateway Can you do something with this data? • Flickr Please post your visualisations and mash-ups on our Flickr group • Contact us at [email protected] • Get the A-Z of data • More at the Datastore directory • Follow us on Twitter • Like us on Facebook