Milestones in the history of thematic cartography, statistical graphics, and data visualization

starting pre-1600 with the Konya Town map


and finishing (strangely) with the infamous 'Minard's March on Moscow' graphic

this version is very dubious quality - below is a much better reproduction as found in the Tufte book

click to see full size version

via issues 110 and 111 of InfoVis (obviously)