R/HistData-package.R

In HistData: Data Sets from the History of Statistics and Data Visualization

#' Data sets from the History of Statistics and Data Visualization
#' 
#' The HistData package provides a collection of data sets that are interesting
#' and important in the history of statistics and data visualization. The goal
#' of the package is to make these available, for instructional use,
#' for historical research, or just plain fun---the challenge of taking dusty old data and using
#' your modern statistical an graphical prowess to find something new or show off your skills.
#' 
#' Some of the data sets contained here have examples which reproduce an historical graph or
#' analysis. These are meant mainly as simple starters for more extensive re-analysis
#' or graphical elaboration. Some of these present graphical challenges to
#' reproduce in R and I'm pleased that some of these have been featured in social media calls
#' for participation, such as the *30 Day Chart Challenge*, <https://github.com/30DayChartChallenge/Edition2025>
#' 
#' They are part of a program of research called *statistical
#' historiography*, meaning the use of statistical methods to study problems
#' and questions in the history of statistics and graphics.  A main aspect of
#' this is the increased understanding of historical problems in science and
#' data analysis trough the process of trying to reproduce a graph or analysis
#' using modern methods. I call this "Re-visioning", meaning to *see
#' again, hopefully in a new light*.
#' 
#' A number of these are illustrated in our book, Friendly & Wainer (2021),
#' *A History of Data Visualization and Graphic Communication*, and some
#' are re-produced in R in the companion web site,
#' <https://friendly.github.io/HistDataVis/>.
#' 
#' Descriptions of each "DataSet" can be found using `help(DataSet)`;
#' `example(DataSet)` will likely show applications similar to the
#' historical use.
#' 
#' Data sets included in the HistData package are:
#' 
#' \describe{
#'   \item{\code{\link{Arbuthnot}}}{Arbuthnot's data on male and female birth ratios in London from 1629-1710}
#'   \item{\code{\link{Armada}}}{The Spanish Armada}
#'   \item{\code{\link{Bowley}}}{Bowley's data on values of British and Irish trade, 1855-1899}
#'   \item{\code{\link{Breslau}}}{Halley's Breslau Life Table}
#'   \item{\code{\link{Cavendish}}}{Cavendish's 1798 determinations of the density of the earth}
#'   \item{\code{\link{ChestSizes}}}{Quetelet's data on chest measurements of Scottish militiamen}
#'   \item{\code{\link{Cholera}}}{William Farr's Data on Cholera in London, 1849}
#'   \item{\code{\link{CholeraDeaths1849}}}{Daily Deaths from Cholera and Diarrhaea in England, 1849}
#'   \item{\code{\link{CushnyPeebles}}}{Cushny-Peebles data: Soporific effects of scopolamine derivatives}
#'   \item{\code{\link{Dactyl}}}{Edgeworth's counts of dactyls in Virgil's Aeneid}
#'   \item{\code{\link{DrinksWages}}}{Elderton and Pearson's (1910) data on drinking and wages}
#'   \item{\code{\link{EdgeworthDeaths}}}{Edgeworth's Data on Death Rates in British Counties}
#'   \item{\code{\link{Fingerprints}}}{Waite's data on Patterns in Fingerprints}
#'   \item{\code{\link{Galton}}}{Galton's data on the heights of parents and their children}
#'   \item{\code{\link{GaltonFamilies}}}{Galton's data on the heights of parents and their children, by family}
#'   \item{\code{\link{Guerry}}}{Data from A.-M. Guerry, "Essay on the Moral Statistics of France"}
#'   \item{\code{\link{HalleyLifeTable}}}{Halley's Life Table}
#'   \item{\code{\link{Jevons}}}{W. Stanley Jevons' data on numerical discrimination}
#'   \item{\code{\link{Langren}}}{van Langren's data on longitude distance between Toledo and Rome}
#'   \item{\code{\link{Macdonell}}}{Macdonell's data on height and finger length of criminals, used by Gosset (1908)}
#'   \item{\code{\link{Mayer}}}{Mayer's data on the libration of the moon}
#'   \item{\code{\link{Michelson}}}{Michelson's 1879 determinations of the velocity of light}
#'   \item{\code{\link{Minard}}}{Data from Minard's famous graphic map of Napoleon's march on Moscow}
#'   \item{\code{\link{Nightingale}}}{Florence Nightingale's data on deaths from various causes in the Crimean War}
#'   \item{\code{\link{OldMaps}}}{Latitudes and Longitudes of 39 Points in 11 Old Maps}
#'   \item{\code{\link{PearsonLee}}}{Pearson and Lee's 1896 data on the heights of parents and children classified by gender}
#'   \item{\code{\link{PolioTrials}}}{Polio Field Trials Data on the Salk vaccine}
#'   \item{\code{\link{Pollen}}}{5D dataset from the 1986 JSM Challenge}
#'   \item{\code{\link{Prostitutes}}}{Parent-Duchatelet's time-series data on the number of prostitutes in Paris}
#'   \item{\code{\link{Pyx}}}{Trial of the Pyx}
#'   \item{\code{\link{Quarrels}}}{Statistics of Deadly Quarrels}
#'   \item{\code{\link{Saturn}}}{Laplace's Saturn data}
#'   \item{\code{\link{Snow}}}{John Snow's map and data on the 1854 London Cholera outbreak}
#'   \item{\code{\link{Virginis}}}{J. F. W. Herschel's data on the orbit of the twin star gamma Virginis}
#'   \item{\code{\link{Wheat}}}{Playfair's data on wages and the price of wheat}
#'   \item{\code{\link{Yeast}}}{Student's (1906) Yeast Cell Counts}
#'   \item{\code{\link{ZeaMays}}}{Darwin's Heights of Cross- and Self-fertilized Zea May Pairs}
#' }
#' 
#' @name HistData-package
#' @aliases HistData-package HistData _PACKAGE
#' @author Michael Friendly
#' 
#' Maintainer: Michael Friendly 
#' @seealso \code{\link{Arbuthnot}}, \code{\link{Armada}},
#' \code{\link{Bowley}}, \code{\link{Cavendish}}, \code{\link{ChestSizes}},
#' \code{\link{Cholera}}, \code{\link{CholeraDeaths1849}},
#' \code{\link{CushnyPeebles}},
#' 
#' \code{\link{Dactyl}}, \code{\link{DrinksWages}},
#' \code{\link{EdgeworthDeaths}}, \code{\link{Fingerprints}},
#' \code{\link{Galton}}, \code{\link{GaltonFamilies}}, \code{\link{Guerry}},
#' \code{\link{HalleyLifeTable}},
#' 
#' \code{\link{Jevons}}, \code{\link{Langren}}, \code{\link{Macdonell}},
#' \code{\link{Michelson}}, \code{\link{Minard}}, \code{\link{Nightingale}},
#' 
#' \code{\link{OldMaps}}, \code{\link{PearsonLee}}, \code{\link{PolioTrials}},
#' \code{\link{Pollen}}, \code{\link{Prostitutes}}, \code{\link{Pyx}},
#' 
#' \code{\link{Quarrels}}, \code{\link{Snow}}, \code{\link{Wheat}},
#' \code{\link{Yeast}}, \code{\link{ZeaMays} }
#' 
#' Other packages containing data sets of historical interest include:
#' 
#' The \code{\link[Guerry]{Guerry-package}}, containing maps and other data
#' sets related to Guerry's (1833) *Moral Statistics of France*.
#' 
#' `morsecodes` from the (defunct) \pkg{xgobi} package for data from
#' Rothkopf (1957) on errors in learning Morse code, a classical example for
#' MDS.
#' 
#' The \pkg{psychTools} package, containing Galton's `peas` data. %
#' \code{\link[psychTools]{peas}} data. The same data set is contained in \pkg{alr4}
#' as \code{\link[alr4]{galtonpeas}}.
#' 
#' The \pkg{agridat} contains a large number of data sets of agricultural data,
#' including some extra data sets related to the classical barley data
#' (\code{\link[MASS]{immer}} and \code{\link[lattice]{barley}}) from Immer
#' (1934): \code{\link[agridat]{minnesota.barley.yield}},
#' \code{\link[agridat]{minnesota.barley.weather}}.
#' 
#' @references Friendly, M. (2007). A Brief History of Data Visualization. In
#' Chen, C., Hardle, W. & Unwin, A. (eds.)  *Handbook of Computational
#' Statistics: Data Visualization*, Springer-Verlag, III, Ch. 1, 1-34.
#' 
#' Friendly, M. & Denis, D. (2001). Milestones in the history of thematic
#' cartography, statistical graphics, and data visualization.
#' <http://datavis.ca/milestones/>
#' 
#' Friendly, M. & Denis, D. (2005). The early origins and development of the
#' scatterplot.  *Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences*, 41,
#' 103-130.
#' 
#' Friendly, M. & Sigal, M. & Harnanansingh, D. (2016). "The Milestones
#' Project: A Database for the History of Data Visualization," In Kostelnick,
#' C. & Kimball, M. (ed.), *Visible Numbers: The History of Data
#' Visualization*, Ashgate Press, Chapter 10.
#' 
#' Friendly, M. & Wainer, H. (2021). *A History of Data Visualization and
#' Graphic Communication*. Harvard University Press. Book:
#' https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674975231, Web site:
#' <https://friendly.github.io/HistDataVis/>.
#' @keywords package
#' @keywords hplot aplot multivariate
#' @importFrom grDevices rgb
#' @importFrom graphics lines plot points polygon text
#' @importFrom utils data
#' @examples
#' 
#' # see examples for the separate data sets, e.g., with ?Dataset or example(Dataset)
#' 
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