{"id":1309,"date":"2015-06-02T10:10:19","date_gmt":"2015-06-02T10:10:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.anychart.com\/blog\/?p=1309"},"modified":"2015-12-24T05:44:25","modified_gmt":"2015-12-24T05:44:25","slug":"first-bar-chart-in-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.anychart.com\/blog\/2015\/06\/02\/first-bar-chart-in-history\/","title":{"rendered":"First Ever Bar Charts Created in 14th Century"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Several experts and sources say <strong>William Playfair<\/strong> deserves credit for the development of the first bar chart in 1786. However, this statement appears to be misleading, or if not wrong, at least just a part of the truth.<\/p>\n<p>If we get down to the bare facts, one of the greatest thinkers and scientists of the Middle Ages, <strong>Nicole Oresme<\/strong>, used a bar chart more than 300 years before Playfair, in his publication titled\u00a0<em>The Latitude of Forms<\/em>\u00a0(14th century). Oresme decided to plot velocity of a constantly accelerating object against time, and here is what he drew:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.anychart.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Nicole_Oresme_Bar_Charts.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1316\" src=\"https:\/\/www.anychart.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Nicole_Oresme_Bar_Charts.png\" alt=\"Nicole Oresme's Charts - First Bar Charts in History\" width=\"700\" height=\"320\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.anychart.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Nicole_Oresme_Bar_Charts.png 700w, https:\/\/www.anychart.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Nicole_Oresme_Bar_Charts-300x137.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>These were the first bar charts in history!<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Moreover, two decades before Playfair, in 1765 <strong>Joseph Priestley<\/strong> designed <em>A Chart of Biography<\/em> to serve as visual study for his <em>Lectures on History and General Policy<\/em>. He used individual horizontal bars to visualize the life span of a person and the whole chart to compare the life spans of multiple persons. Although it is more of a timeline chart, it can still be considered to be a bar chart, too.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.anychart.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Joseph_Priestley_A-Chart_Of_History.gif\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.anychart.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Joseph_Priestley_A-Chart_Of_History.gif\" alt=\"Joseph Priestley's Chart of History\" width=\"700\" height=\"334\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>But what about William Playfair? In 1786 he published <em>The Commercial and Political Atlas<\/em> with a chart <em>Exports and Imports of Scotland to and from different parts for one Year from Christmas 1780 to Christmas 1781<\/em>, and this bar chart form looks much more usual to us today.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.anychart.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/William_Playfair_Export_Import_Bar_Chart.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1317\" src=\"https:\/\/www.anychart.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/William_Playfair_Export_Import_Bar_Chart.png\" alt=\"William Playfair's Export\/Import Bar Chart\" width=\"700\" height=\"483\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.anychart.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/William_Playfair_Export_Import_Bar_Chart.png 700w, https:\/\/www.anychart.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/William_Playfair_Export_Import_Bar_Chart-300x207.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>James R. Beniger and Dorothy L. Robyn explain:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>This bar chart was the first quantitative graphical form that did not locate data either in space, as had coordinates and tables, or time, as had Priestley&#8217;s timelines. It constitutes a pure solution to the problem of discrete quantitative comparison.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>So, even if William Playfair was not the one to invent the bar chart, we must admit at least his pioneering\u00a0role in implementing and popularizing the idea of graphic depiction of quantitative data and still being one of the first bar chart makers in history.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: x-small\">References:<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: x-small\"> &#8211; Arthur Sheps (1999). <i>Joseph Priestley&#8217;s Time Charts: The Use and Teaching of History by Rational Dissent in late Eighteenth-Century England<\/i>. Lumen: <i>Selected Proceedings from the Canadian Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies<\/i>, 18<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: x-small\"> &#8211; Geoff Der, Brian S. Everitt (2014). <i>A Handbook of Statistical Graphics Using SAS ODS. <\/i>Chapman and Hall\/CRC<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: x-small\"> &#8211; James R. Beniger and Dorothy L. Robyn (1978). <i>Quantitative graphics in statistics: A brief history<\/i>. <i>The American Statistician<\/i>, 32<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: x-small\"> &#8211; J\u00fcrgen Symanzik, William (Zelli) Fischetti, Ian Spence (2009). <i>Commemorating William Playfair\u2019s 250th Birthday<\/i>. Utah State University<\/span><\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Several experts and sources say William Playfair deserves credit for the development of the first bar chart in 1786. However, this statement appears to be misleading, or if not wrong, at least just a part of the truth. If we get down to the bare facts, one of the greatest thinkers and scientists of the [&hellip;]<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[70,71,54],"class_list":["post-1309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interesting-facts","tag-bar-chart","tag-bar-charts","tag-data-visualization","wpautop"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>First Ever Bar Charts Created in 14th Century | AnyChart News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This interesting story is about history of the first bar chart in the history: several experts and sources say\u00a0W. Playfair (1786) deserves credit, but...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.anychart.com\/blog\/2015\/06\/02\/first-bar-chart-in-history\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"First Ever Bar Charts Created in 14th Century | AnyChart News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This interesting story is about history of the first bar chart in the history: several experts and sources say\u00a0W. Playfair (1786) deserves credit, but...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.anychart.com\/blog\/2015\/06\/02\/first-bar-chart-in-history\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"AnyChart News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AnyCharts\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-06-02T10:10:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-12-24T05:44:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.anychart.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Nicole_Oresme_Bar_Charts.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"700\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"320\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"AnyChart Team\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@AnyChart\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@AnyChart\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"AnyChart Team\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.anychart.com\/blog\/2015\/06\/02\/first-bar-chart-in-history\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.anychart.com\/blog\/2015\/06\/02\/first-bar-chart-in-history\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"AnyChart Team\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.anychart.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2470e26e58231357db6d9993ecd6461b\"},\"headline\":\"First Ever Bar Charts Created in 14th Century\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-06-02T10:10:19+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-12-24T05:44:25+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.anychart.com\/blog\/2015\/06\/02\/first-bar-chart-in-history\/\"},\"wordCount\":408,\"commentCount\":3,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.anychart.com\/blog\/2015\/06\/02\/first-bar-chart-in-history\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.anychart.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Nicole_Oresme_Bar_Charts.png\",\"keywords\":[\"bar chart\",\"bar charts\",\"Data Visualization\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Interesting Facts\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.anychart.com\/blog\/2015\/06\/02\/first-bar-chart-in-history\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.anychart.com\/blog\/2015\/06\/02\/first-bar-chart-in-history\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.anychart.com\/blog\/2015\/06\/02\/first-bar-chart-in-history\/\",\"name\":\"First Ever Bar Charts Created in 14th Century | AnyChart News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.anychart.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.anychart.com\/blog\/2015\/06\/02\/first-bar-chart-in-history\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.anychart.com\/blog\/2015\/06\/02\/first-bar-chart-in-history\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.anychart.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Nicole_Oresme_Bar_Charts.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-06-02T10:10:19+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-12-24T05:44:25+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.anychart.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2470e26e58231357db6d9993ecd6461b\"},\"description\":\"This interesting story is about history of the first bar chart in the history: several experts and sources say\u00a0W. Playfair (1786) deserves credit, but...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.anychart.com\/blog\/2015\/06\/02\/first-bar-chart-in-history\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.anychart.com\/blog\/2015\/06\/02\/first-bar-chart-in-history\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.anychart.com\/blog\/2015\/06\/02\/first-bar-chart-in-history\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.anychart.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Nicole_Oresme_Bar_Charts.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.anychart.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Nicole_Oresme_Bar_Charts.png\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.anychart.com\/blog\/2015\/06\/02\/first-bar-chart-in-history\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.anychart.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"First Ever Bar Charts Created in 14th Century\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.anychart.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.anychart.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"AnyChart News\",\"description\":\"AnyChart JS Charts\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.anychart.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.anychart.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2470e26e58231357db6d9993ecd6461b\",\"name\":\"AnyChart Team\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.anychart.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4faeb24a1b553a1b071b765bfad138c00441a955b3a631c7564624ceeafdf884?s=96&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4faeb24a1b553a1b071b765bfad138c00441a955b3a631c7564624ceeafdf884?s=96&r=g\",\"caption\":\"AnyChart Team\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.anychart.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.anychart.com\/blog\/author\/andrey-khachaturov\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"First Ever Bar Charts Created in 14th Century | AnyChart News","description":"This interesting story is about history of the first bar chart in the history: several experts and sources say\u00a0W. Playfair (1786) deserves credit, but...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.anychart.com\/blog\/2015\/06\/02\/first-bar-chart-in-history\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"First Ever Bar Charts Created in 14th Century | AnyChart News","og_description":"This interesting story is about history of the first bar chart in the history: several experts and sources say\u00a0W. Playfair (1786) deserves credit, but...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.anychart.com\/blog\/2015\/06\/02\/first-bar-chart-in-history\/","og_site_name":"AnyChart News","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AnyCharts","article_published_time":"2015-06-02T10:10:19+00:00","article_modified_time":"2015-12-24T05:44:25+00:00","og_image":[{"width":700,"height":320,"url":"https:\/\/www.anychart.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Nicole_Oresme_Bar_Charts.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"AnyChart Team","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@AnyChart","twitter_site":"@AnyChart","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"AnyChart Team","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.anychart.com\/blog\/2015\/06\/02\/first-bar-chart-in-history\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.anychart.com\/blog\/2015\/06\/02\/first-bar-chart-in-history\/"},"author":{"name":"AnyChart Team","@id":"https:\/\/www.anychart.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2470e26e58231357db6d9993ecd6461b"},"headline":"First Ever Bar Charts Created in 14th Century","datePublished":"2015-06-02T10:10:19+00:00","dateModified":"2015-12-24T05:44:25+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.anychart.com\/blog\/2015\/06\/02\/first-bar-chart-in-history\/"},"wordCount":408,"commentCount":3,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.anychart.com\/blog\/2015\/06\/02\/first-bar-chart-in-history\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.anychart.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Nicole_Oresme_Bar_Charts.png","keywords":["bar chart","bar charts","Data Visualization"],"articleSection":["Interesting Facts"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.anychart.com\/blog\/2015\/06\/02\/first-bar-chart-in-history\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.anychart.com\/blog\/2015\/06\/02\/first-bar-chart-in-history\/","url":"https:\/\/www.anychart.com\/blog\/2015\/06\/02\/first-bar-chart-in-history\/","name":"First Ever Bar Charts Created in 14th Century | AnyChart News","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.anychart.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.anychart.com\/blog\/2015\/06\/02\/first-bar-chart-in-history\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.anychart.com\/blog\/2015\/06\/02\/first-bar-chart-in-history\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.anychart.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Nicole_Oresme_Bar_Charts.png","datePublished":"2015-06-02T10:10:19+00:00","dateModified":"2015-12-24T05:44:25+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.anychart.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2470e26e58231357db6d9993ecd6461b"},"description":"This interesting story is about history of the first bar chart in the history: several experts and sources say\u00a0W. Playfair (1786) deserves credit, but...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.anychart.com\/blog\/2015\/06\/02\/first-bar-chart-in-history\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.anychart.com\/blog\/2015\/06\/02\/first-bar-chart-in-history\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.anychart.com\/blog\/2015\/06\/02\/first-bar-chart-in-history\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.anychart.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Nicole_Oresme_Bar_Charts.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.anychart.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Nicole_Oresme_Bar_Charts.png"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.anychart.com\/blog\/2015\/06\/02\/first-bar-chart-in-history\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.anychart.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"First Ever Bar Charts Created in 14th Century"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.anychart.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.anychart.com\/blog\/","name":"AnyChart News","description":"AnyChart JS Charts","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.anychart.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.anychart.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2470e26e58231357db6d9993ecd6461b","name":"AnyChart Team","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.anychart.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4faeb24a1b553a1b071b765bfad138c00441a955b3a631c7564624ceeafdf884?s=96&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4faeb24a1b553a1b071b765bfad138c00441a955b3a631c7564624ceeafdf884?s=96&r=g","caption":"AnyChart Team"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.anychart.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.anychart.com\/blog\/author\/andrey-khachaturov\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anychart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anychart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anychart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anychart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anychart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1309"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/www.anychart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1309\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1440,"href":"https:\/\/www.anychart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1309\/revisions\/1440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anychart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anychart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anychart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}