Derek Watkins' westward movement of the U.S. Mail
This is one of those information graphics that educates you and is simply fun to watch. I love watching this type of time aligned motion graphics, mostly owing to my having been a history teaching, and I can see lurches westward coinciding with various historic events and trends. In fact, that may be a good way of using this video, asking students to watch it and identify the evidence of the topics being covered in U.S. History. From the creator of this visual, geography grad student, Derek Watkins,
This visualization shows how formal US territorial control expanded in North America from 1700 to 1900, as seen through changes in the spatial distribution of post offices.
He goes on to explain how he went about collecting the data for his imagery. Very interesting.
Blog Entry: http://goo.gl/pRgcB
Video: http://goo.gl/ANCYz