Charles Joseph Minard
French engineer (1781-1870)
Charles Joseph Minard (; French: [minaʁ]; 27 March 1781 – 24 October 1870) was a French civil engineer recognized for his significant contribution in the field of information graphics in civil engineering and statistics. Minard was, among other things, noted for his representation of numerical data on geographic maps, especially his flow maps.
Early life
Minard was born in Dijon in the Saint Michel parish. He was the son of Pierre Étienne Minard and Bénigne Boiteux. His father was a clerk of the court and an officer of the secondary school. Minard was baptized at Saint Michel on the day of his birth. He was an intelligent child and his father encouraged him to study at an early age. At age four he learned to read and write, and when he was six his father enrolled him in an elementary course in anatomy. He completed his fourth year of study at the secondary school at Dijon early, and then applied himself to studying Latin, literature, and physical and math sciences. At age fifteen, he was admitted to the prestigious École Polytechnique, where he studied from 1796 to 1800.
“Charles Joseph Minard” enters the record as french engineer (1781-1870). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Charles, Joseph and Minard can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 29, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1065131. VIAF identifies the subject as 79209991. The Library of Congress control number is n88138889. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1781, 1870, 1796 and 1800.
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This entry incorporates text from “Charles Joseph Minard” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.