Above All Made by Themselves: The Visual Rhetoric of W. E. B. Du Bois’s Data Visualizations

Technical Communication Quarterly Jan 2022

Above All Made by Themselves: The Visual Rhetoric of W. E. B. Du Bois’s Data Visualizations

Kevin Van Winkle Colorado State University Pueblo

Abstract

In this article, I examine and contextualize a selection of award-winning data visualizations created by W. E. B. Du Bois and his team for the 1900 World’s Fair in Paris, France. I show that Du Bois’s success with these data visualizations is partially attributable to the ways in which he merged artistic creativity with statistical empiricism to overcome the practical and ideological constraints of his rhetorical situation, namely a need to be seen amongst the fair’s larger spectacle and a refutation of the “scientific” racism that pervaded academia at the time. The research presented confirms Du Bois as an important but previously unrecognized progenitor of data visualization and therefore deserving of much more recognition in the fields of technical and professional communication (TPC) and data visualization than he currently receives. Ultimately, I argue that his achievement recommends useful lessons for contemporary scholars, practitioners, and pedagogues of TPC and data design.

Journal: Technical Communication Quarterly
Published: 2022-01-02
DOI: 10.1080/10572252.2021.1906450
Open Access: Closed
Topics: multimodality

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