# Beautiful Public Data
> A curated selection of visually interesting datasets collected by local, state and federal government agencies. By Jon Keegan.
Public Ghost content for AI and LLM tooling. Use `/llms-full.txt` for consolidated page and post context.
Append `.md` to any post or page URL to get the content in Markdown (for example, `/example-post.md`).

## Pages
- [About this site](https://www.beautifulpublicdata.com/about.md) - Hello! My name is Jon Keegan and I'm an investigative data reporter with a background in visuals. My work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Markup and MIT Technology Review. With each issue of Beautiful Public Data, I take you deep into the archives of government agencies and surface vis…
- [Subscribe to Beautiful Public Data](https://www.beautifulpublicdata.com/subscribe.md) - Subscribe for free. A newsletter featuring a curated selection of visually interesting datasets collected by local, state and federal government agencies. By Jon Keegan.

## Posts
- [50,000 boat names](https://www.beautifulpublicdata.com/boat-names.md) - 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.
- [The footprints of every building in NYC](https://www.beautifulpublicdata.com/the-footprints-of-every-building-in-nyc.md) - 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.
- [San Diego Photologs from the 1970s](https://www.beautifulpublicdata.com/san-diego-photologs-from-the-1970s.md) - A collection of beautiful, high-resolution photolog scans reveals a colorful world of pastel-colored cars and whimsical signage.
- [The USGS Cooperative National Geologic Map](https://www.beautifulpublicdata.com/usgs-cooperative-national-geologic-map.md) - 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 to date.
- [How LiDAR measures the toll of climate disasters](https://www.beautifulpublicdata.com/how-lidar-measures-the-toll-of-climate-disasters.md) - 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.
- [NASA Ames Research Center Archives](https://www.beautifulpublicdata.com/nasa-ames-research-center-archives.md) - 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.
- [WWII Japanese Mass Incarceration collections](https://www.beautifulpublicdata.com/wwii-japanese-mass-incarceration-collections.md) - Haunting photos document a shameful chapter of America’s history—the forced displacement and incarceration of Japanese Americans during WWII.
- [Cold War Military Slides](https://www.beautifulpublicdata.com/cold-war-military-slides.md) - A reporter stumbled upon a treasure trove of Department of Defense slides from the 1970s and 1980s depicting data from missile systems, Soviet capabilities and America’s nuclear arsenal.
- [US Government UFO (UAP) Footage](https://www.beautifulpublicdata.com/us-government-ufo-uap-footage.md) - For decades, the public suspected that the US Government was hiding secret intelligence about UFOs — (now known as UAPs). Turns out…it kind of was.
- [14,000 Photos of Army Uniforms and Rations from the 70s and 80s](https://www.beautifulpublicdata.com/army-uniforms-rations-photos-1970s-1980s.md) - An incredible archive of 14,000 photos of Army uniforms, military gear and rations from the 70s and 80s.
- [Visualizing Ship Movements with AIS Data](https://www.beautifulpublicdata.com/visualizing-ship-movements-with-ais-data.md) - 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.
- [Design for the People: The US Web Design System and the Public Sans Typeface](https://www.beautifulpublicdata.com/us-web-design-system-public-sans.md) - The United States has an official web design system and a custom typeface that belongs to the people. This thoughtful public design system aims to make government websites not only look good, but to make them accessible and functional for all.
- [Aerial Glacier Photographs](https://www.beautifulpublicdata.com/aerial-glacier-photographs.md) - A collection of 100,000 striking high-resolution aerial photos of glaciers, photographed over 40 years with a 63-pound WW II surveillance camera.
- [The Naughty Words the FAA Removed From the Sky](https://www.beautifulpublicdata.com/trump-naughty-faa-waypoints.md) - 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 waypoint names that were changed over the years.
- [Trademark Design Codes](https://www.beautifulpublicdata.com/uspto-trademark-design-codes.md) - 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 women”.
- [FAA Aviation Maps](https://www.beautifulpublicdata.com/faa-aviation-maps.md) - 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.
- [Government Comic Books](https://www.beautifulpublicdata.com/government-comic-books.md) - Government comics have taught Americans how to prevent forest fires, survive a nuclear blast, and how soldiers should handle homosexuality in the military.
- [Wild Horses](https://www.beautifulpublicdata.com/wild-horses.md) - 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.
- [The Army and Navy Style Guides](https://www.beautifulpublicdata.com/army-navy-style-guides.md) - These fascinating Army and Navy brand style guides define the look, feel and voice of our armed forces.
- [Nuclear Weapon Test Films](https://www.beautifulpublicdata.com/nuclear-weapon-test-films.md) - Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories has an archive of an estimated 10,000 films of nuclear weapons tests from the 1940's - 1960's.
- [All of the 8,331 License Plates in America](https://www.beautifulpublicdata.com/all-of-the-license-plates-in-the-united-states.md) - States now offer a vast menu of personalized plate options for a dizzying array of organizations, professions, sports teams, causes and other groups.
- [Mapping Volcano Eruptions With Drones](https://www.beautifulpublicdata.com/mapping-volcano-eruptions-with-drones.md) - Drones have become an essential tool to map, measure and observe the extremely dangerous environments surrounding volcanic eruptions.
- [Here’s All the Rocks We Hauled Back From the Moon](https://www.beautifulpublicdata.com/nasa-lunar-sample-collection.md) - 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 documented in NASA's Lunar Sample Catalog.
- [1,000 Photos of Dolphin Fins](https://www.beautifulpublicdata.com/1000-photos-of-dolphin-fins.md) - Scars, scratches and wounds abound in these photos as encounters with unknown creatures and boat propellers leave their marks, imprinting a story of close escapes and cheating death.
- [The Mirror Fusion Test Facility](https://www.beautifulpublicdata.com/the-mirror-fusion-test-facility.md) - 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 was dedicated. It was never turned on.
- [Special Database 18: 3,248 Mugshots Used for Training Image Recognition Systems](https://www.beautifulpublicdata.com/nist-special-database-18-3-248-mugshots-used-for-training-image-recognition-systems.md) - The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has maintained a dataset of mugshot photos of 1,573 people for decades, including 175 minors, until we asked about them.
- [Pilot Manual for a 1940's U.S. Navy Blimp](https://www.beautifulpublicdata.com/pilot-manual-for-a-1940-u-s-air-force-blimp.md) - This 122 page manual contains all of the operating instructions and technical details needed to pilot this sleek, silver, 250 foot long, weaponized anti-submarine dirigible.
- [The United States Frequency Allocation Chart](https://www.beautifulpublicdata.com/the-united-states-radio-frequency-allocation-chart.md) - This crazy, beautiful chart illustrates the incredible complexity of managing one of our nation’s most crucial – and invisible – national assets: the radio spectrum.
- [The Style Guide for America’s Highways: The Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices](https://www.beautifulpublicdata.com/the-style-guide-for-americas-highways-mutcd.md) - Driving across America, you will encounter a wide variety of cultures, landscapes, people and animals. But the one consistent thing that will stay the same from Maine to California are the signs you pass on the highway. That is because America’s roads and highways have a big, fat style guide.
- [Mapping the Sea Floor](https://www.beautifulpublicdata.com/mapping-the-sea-floor.md) - USGS research vessels equipped with cameras, sonar and scanners created a map of 125 square miles of the sea floor off Cape Ann, MA.
- [Vehicle Crash Test Films from the 1970's and 1980s](https://www.beautifulpublicdata.com/vehicle-crash-test-films-from-the-1980s.md) - Deep in the public archives of the NHTSA, there are thousands of films of some classic (and some ugly) 70’s and 80’s cars being smashed into smithereens.
- [Visualizing Rivers and Floodplains with USGS Data](https://www.beautifulpublicdata.com/visualizing-rivers-and-floodplains.md) - Using USGS elevation data to visualize stunning views of the flow of water through rivers and floodplains.
- [A Rover's First 590 Days* on Mars](https://www.beautifulpublicdata.com/590-days-on-mars.md) - I downloaded 60,000 images to experience what NASA's Perseverance rover has been seeing since landing there in Feb. 2021.
- [Utah Highway LiDAR Scans](https://www.beautifulpublicdata.com/utah-lidar.md) - 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.
- [The GOES-16 Weather Satellite](https://www.beautifulpublicdata.com/the-goes-16-weather-satellite.md) - Satellites used to observe weather are so ubiquitous it is easy to take them for granted. GOES-16 is worthy of your attention.
- [The Pillbox Database](https://www.beautifulpublicdata.com/the-pillbox-database.md) - The National Library of Medicine's Pillbox dataset contained 8,693 photographs of pills, with an accompanying database of drug information. It was built to help with the identification of unknown pills.
- [Photologging Vans](https://www.beautifulpublicdata.com/photologging-vans.md) - These sequences are from New York and Connecticut’s state photolog archives, which I obtained through public records requests. Almost every state’s highway departments had highway photolog programs, some dating back as early as 1961. These sequences were captured by specially tricked out vans. The…
- [Highway Photologs](https://www.beautifulpublicdata.com/highway-photologs.md) - Highway departments all around the country had "photolog" programs, some dating back as early as 1961. Each year, specially tricked out vans would drive each mile of state road snapping photos to document the status of roadways.

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