Beautiful Public Data

✨📊 A Rover's First 590 Days* on Mars I downloaded 60,000 images to experience what NASA's Perseverance rover has been seeing since landing there in Feb. 2021. https://beautifulpublicdata.com/590-days-on-mars

✨📊 Here's All the Rocks We Hauled Back From the Moon The 12 human beings who walked on the Moon collected, catalogued and returned 842 pounds of lunar rock and soil. Each sample has been meticulously docum… https://beautifulpublicdata.com/nasa-lunar-sample-collection

✨📊 Photologging Vans These sequences are from New York and Connecticut's state photolog archives, which I obtained through public records requests. Almost every state's hi… https://beautifulpublicdata.com/photologging-vans

✨📊 The Naughty Words the FAA Removed From the Sky New FOIA records from the FAA shed light on the frantic effort in 2015 to rename navigation waypoints related to Donald Trump and reveal the list of naughty… https://beautifulpublicdata.com/trump-naughty-faa-waypoints

✨📊 The Style Guide for America's Highways: The Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices Driving across America, you will encounter a wide variety of cultures, landscapes, people and animals… https://beautifulpublicdata.com/the-style-guide-for-americas-highways-mutcd

NEW POST: The Visible Human Project: Researchers created a dataset of photos of thousands of paper-thin slices of a male and female cadaver to create one of the most detailed datasets about the human body. www.beautifulpublicdata.com/the-visible-...

✨📊 Design for the People: The US Web Design System and the Public Sans Typeface The United States has an official web design system and a custom typeface that belongs to the people. This thoughtful pub… https://beautifulpublicdata.com/us-web-design-system-public-sans

NEW POST: The Visible Human Project: Researchers created a dataset of photos of thousands of paper-thin slices of a male and female cadaver to create one of the most detailed datasets about the human body. www.beautifulpublicdata.com/the-visible-...

New post tomorrow morning. Sneak peek 👀.

✨📊 San Diego Photologs from the 1970s A collection of beautiful, high-resolution photolog scans reveals a colorful world of pastel-colored cars and whimsical signage. https://beautifulpublicdata.com/san-diego-photologs-from-the-1970s

✨📊 Wild Horses The Bureau of Land Management wants to pay you $1,000 to adopt a wild horse. But the program has been criticized by animal rights advocates and subject to scrutiny by Congress. https://beautifulpublicdata.com/wild-horses

✨📊 The Mirror Fusion Test Facility A decade-long effort to build a machine to unlock the promise of nuclear fusion fell victim to budget constraints and competing science, and was shut down the day it w… https://beautifulpublicdata.com/the-mirror-fusion-test-facility

Stopped by and checked out @mapcenter.com this weekend in Pawtucket, RI! Andrew has a fantastic shop full of some cartographic gems. Picked up “The Red Atlas” which features tons of maps of the US made by Soviet spies during the Cold War. If you are in Rhode Island stop by and check it out!

✨📊 FAA Aviation Maps Among all of the visual information published by the U.S. government, there may be no product with a higher information density than the Federal Aviation Administration's aviation maps. https://beautifulpublicdata.com/faa-aviation-maps

✨📊 14,000 Photos of Army Uniforms and Rations from the 70s and 80s An incredible archive of 14,000 photos of Army uniforms, military gear and rations from the 70s and 80s. https://beautifulpublicdata.com/army-uniforms-rations-photos-1970s-1980s

✨📊 The Naughty Words the FAA Removed From the Sky New FOIA records from the FAA shed light on the frantic effort in 2015 to rename navigation waypoints related to Donald Trump and reveal the list of naughty… https://beautifulpublicdata.com/trump-naughty-faa-waypoints

✨📊 Photologging Vans These sequences are from New York and Connecticut's state photolog archives, which I obtained through public records requests. Almost every state's hi… https://beautifulpublicdata.com/photologging-vans

✨📊 How LiDAR measures the toll of climate disasters Comparing LiDAR data from before and after the January 2025 fires in Los Angeles reveals the scale of devastation in ways satellite imagery can't match. https://beautifulpublicdata.com/how-lidar-measures-the-toll-of-climate-disasters

✨📊 The USGS Cooperative National Geologic Map A new, colorful map from the USGS synthesizes decades of state and federal geologic surveys to create the most detailed visualization of the geology of the contiguous United States… https://beautifulpublicdata.com/usgs-cooperative-national-geologic-map

✨📊 How LiDAR measures the toll of climate disasters Comparing LiDAR data from before and after the January 2025 fires in Los Angeles reveals the scale of devastation in ways satellite imagery can't match. https://beautifulpublicdata.com/how-lidar-measures-the-toll-of-climate-disasters

NEW POST: How do you tell friend from foe in a split second? These beautifully designed WWII guides used silhouettes and vehicle details into a system for recognizing tanks, planes, and ships on sight. www.beautifulpublicdata.com/wwii-tank-ai...

✨📊 San Diego Photologs from the 1970s A collection of beautiful, high-resolution photolog scans reveals a colorful world of pastel-colored cars and whimsical signage. https://beautifulpublicdata.com/san-diego-photologs-from-the-1970s

NEW: BPD Field Notes – a mix of some weirdo datasets that have lingered in my story idea spreadsheet for a while, fun data nuggets, and a story from the archive. This week: crocheted halibuts, old Yosemite photos, and judge portraits. Sign up! www.beautifulpublicdata.com/email/3e9f15...

✨📊 WWII Japanese Mass Incarceration Collections Haunting photos document a shameful chapter of America's history—the forced displacement and incarceration of Japanese Americans during WWII. https://beautifulpublicdata.com/wwii-japanese-mass-incarceration-collections

NEW POST: ⚓️ From SEA SLUT II to BILBOAT BAGGINS, a deep dive into AIS vessel data turns up 50,000 boat names packed with nautical puns, dirty jokes, and Tolkien deep cuts. 📊 Includes a fun searchable interactive to look through the data. www.beautifulpublicdata.com/boat-names/

✨📊 The footprints of every building in NYC The landscape of NYC changes so much that the New York City Office of Technology and Innovation updates a dataset of building footprint shapes weekly. https://beautifulpublicdata.com/the-footprints-of-every-building-in-nyc

✨📊 NASA Ames Research Center Archives In the heart of Silicon Valley, NASA Ames Research Center has the world's largest wind tunnel, and a rich history of space and aeronautics innovation captured in a fascinating visual archive. https://beautifulpublicdata.com/nasa-ames-research-center-archives

Added more USGS geologic map state T-shirts!

✨📊 Trademark Design Codes The United States Patent and Trademark Office has a system of 1,400 descriptive "design codes" allowing you to search for trademarks with "Rickshaws", "Centaurs" or "Mechanical w… https://beautifulpublicdata.com/uspto-trademark-design-codes

✨📊 The GOES-16 Weather Satellite Satellites used to observe weather are so ubiquitous it is easy to take them for granted. GOES-16 is worthy of your attention. https://beautifulpublicdata.com/the-goes-16-weather-satellite

NEW POST! 🏙️ The landscape of NYC changes so much that the New York City Office of Technology and Innovation updates a dataset of building footprint shapes weekly. I can’t believe this is the first NYC dataset I have written about. www.beautifulpublicdata.com/the-footprin...

✨📊 The Naughty Words the FAA Removed From the Sky New FOIA records from the FAA shed light on the frantic effort in 2015 to rename navigation waypoints related to Donald Trump and reveal the list of naughty… https://beautifulpublicdata.com/trump-naughty-faa-waypoints

✨📊 The United States Frequency Allocation Chart This crazy, beautiful chart illustrates the incredible complexity of managing one of our nation's most crucial – and invisible – nation… https://beautifulpublicdata.com/the-united-states-radio-frequency-allocation-chart

✨📊 The Style Guide for America's Highways: The Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices Driving across America, you will encounter a wide variety of cultures, landscapes, people and animals… https://beautifulpublicdata.com/the-style-guide-for-americas-highways-mutcd

✨📊 Special Database 18: 3,248 Mugshots Used for Training Image Recognition Systems The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has maint… https://beautifulpublicdata.com/nist-special-database-18-3-248-mugshots-used-for-training-image-recognition-systems

✨📊 The Style Guide for America's Highways: The Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices Driving across America, you will encounter a wide variety of cultures, landscapes, people and animals… https://beautifulpublicdata.com/the-style-guide-for-americas-highways-mutcd

✨📊 Trademark Design Codes The United States Patent and Trademark Office has a system of 1,400 descriptive "design codes" allowing you to search for trademarks with "Rickshaws", "Centaurs" or "Mechanical w… https://beautifulpublicdata.com/uspto-trademark-design-codes

✨📊 The GOES-16 Weather Satellite Satellites used to observe weather are so ubiquitous it is easy to take them for granted. GOES-16 is worthy of your attention. https://beautifulpublicdata.com/the-goes-16-weather-satellite

NEW POST: San Diego Photologs from the 1970s You're rolling down Camino Del Rio smoking a Lark, listening to Rare Earth, before pulling into a Texaco to pay $0.34 per gallon for low-lead Fire Chief gas and fill up your "Mellow Yellow" AMC Gremlin. www.beautifulpublicdata.com/san-diego-ph...

NEW POST on @beautifulpublicdata.com: San Diego Photologs from the 1970s - A collection of beautiful, high-resolution photolog scans reveals a colorful world of pastel-colored cars and whimsical signage. beautifulpublicdata.com/san-diego-ph...

A little tease for next week’s post.

✨📊 Utah Highway LiDAR Scans Utah's Department of Transportation uses state-of-the-art 3-D laser scanners to capture the surfaces and area surrounding 15,000 miles of its roads. https://beautifulpublicdata.com/utah-lidar

✨📊 Trademark Design Codes The United States Patent and Trademark Office has a system of 1,400 descriptive "design codes" allowing you to search for trademarks with "Rickshaws", "Centaurs" or "Mechanical w… https://beautifulpublicdata.com/uspto-trademark-design-codes

✨📊 Special Database 18: 3,248 Mugshots Used for Training Image Recognition Systems The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has maint… https://beautifulpublicdata.com/nist-special-database-18-3-248-mugshots-used-for-training-image-recognition-systems

✨📊 Mapping Volcano Eruptions With Drones Drones have become an essential tool to map, measure and observe the extremely dangerous environments surrounding volcanic eruptions. https://beautifulpublicdata.com/mapping-volcano-eruptions-with-drones

✨📊 Trademark Design Codes The United States Patent and Trademark Office has a system of 1,400 descriptive "design codes" allowing you to search for trademarks with "Rickshaws", "Centaurs" or "Mechanical w… https://beautifulpublicdata.com/uspto-trademark-design-codes

🛑⚠️🅿️ New merch just dropped on my @beautifulpublicdata.com Etsy shop! A fun collage of hundreds of US highways signs from the FHA's Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD). Premium 100% cotton, heavyweight. beautifulpublicdata.etsy.com/listing/4510...

NEW MERCH: The USGS Cooperative National Geologic Map is the most detailed visualization of the geology of the United States to date. We made some shirts featuring the colorful geologic makeup of different states. First up: NEW YORK More states to come! beautifulpublicdata.etsy.com

✨📊 Pilot Manual for a 1940's U.S. Navy Blimp This 122 page manual contains all of the operating instructions and technical details needed to pilot this sleek, silver, 250 foot long, weaponiz… https://beautifulpublicdata.com/pilot-manual-for-a-1940-u-s-air-force-blimp

✨📊 Visualizing Ship Movements with AIS Data Explore the beautiful, intricate paths of ships over a year—tracked from America's busiest ports to the open ocean via AIS marine tracking data. https://beautifulpublicdata.com/visualizing-ship-movements-with-ais-data