Via our peripatetic friends at
Strange Company, we are reacquainted with the figure of polymath and explorer Alexander von Humboldt (previously
here,
here and
here, *1769 - †1859) through his educationally
enhanced maps and charts (
see also).

The naturalist’s perhaps greatest legacy as a science communicator was his ability to unleash information formerly discrete and disperse (
relatedly) and compile figures and synthesise them visually, like this cross section that imparted vegetation topographically and appealed to curiosity through presentation. More to explore at the links above.