Statistical Atlas of the United States, Based Upon the Results of the Eleventh Census (1890) - plate 10: Rank of states and territories in population at each census: 1790 - 1890
The pattern
This still is filed under Data as proof.
Define
A chart, map, or count that is the argument, not an illustration next to the argument.
Mechanism
Sighted evidence. The reader is asked to believe their eyes: a bar, a share, a spread on a map.
Verdict
The claim is comparative or quantitative and the figure can be read without a caption doing the sell.
Why it works
Rank is the only variable, so the chart refuses to show magnitude and in exchange makes order instantly legible, which is the right trade when the question is who overtook whom. The connecting hairlines are the mechanism: a crossing line is a change in standing, so the reader sees churn as texture, dense at the bottom of the table and nearly flat at the top. Repeating each state's colour pattern down the whole sheet gives a per-state identity that survives eleven columns without a legend. Setting labels only at the outer edges keeps the field clean and forces the reader to travel the thread, which is exactly the act of reading the chart.
Steal this when
Use this when position against peers matters more than absolute size, and the story is overtaking: category leaderboards over quarters, competitor rank by region, keyword or product standings over time. Run one row per entity, connect the same entity between periods, and resist adding magnitude, which would ruin the one thing a rank chart does well.