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Abstract
The paper explores visualisation of “big data” from digitised museum collections and
archives, focusing on the relationship between data, visualisation and narrative.
A contrast is presented between visualisations that show “just the data” and those
that present the information in such a way as to tell a story using visual rhetorical
devices; such devices have historically included trees, streams, chains, geometric
shapes and other forms. The contrast is explored through historical examples and a
survey of current practice. A discussion centred on visualising datasets from the
British Library, Science Museum and Wellcome Library is used to outline key research
questions.