Abstract
The origins of chart graphics (e.g., bar charts and line charts) are well known [30], with the seminal event being the publication of William Playfair’s (1759-1823) The Commercial and Political Atlas in London in 1786 [26]. However, the origins of graph drawing are not well known. Although Euler (1707-1783) is credited with originating graph theory in 1736 [12],[20], graph drawings were in limited use centuries before Euler’s time. Moreover, Euler himself does not appear to have made significant use of graph visualizations. Widespread use of graph drawing did not begin until decades later, when it arose in several distinct contexts. In this short note we present a selection of very early graph drawings; note the apparent absence of graph visualization in Euler’s work; and identify some early innovators of modern graph drawing.
Keywords
- Short Note
- Family Tree
- Graph Drawing
- Musical Interval
- Medieval Literature
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
A mathematical graph consists of a set of nodes and a set of edges. An edge connects a pair of nodes.
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References
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Kruja, E., Marks, J., Blair, A., Waters, R. (2002). A Short Note on the History of Graph Drawing. In: Mutzel, P., Jünger, M., Leipert, S. (eds) Graph Drawing. GD 2001. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 2265. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-45848-4_22
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