Beautiful Public Data

A smattering of boat names found in NOAA's Marine Cadastre data set.

Visualization: Jon Keegan / Beautiful Public Data.

A collection of beautiful, high-resolution photolog scans reveals a colorful world of pastel-colored cars and whimsical signage.

This summer, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) completed an ambitious project — the most detailed geologic map ever produced for the lower 48 states.

A visualization of the areas damaged by the Eaton fire in January 2025.

Images from NASA Ames Research Center archives capture a wide range of breakthrough research in aeronautics, space and supercomputing.

A collection of photographs by Ansel Adams and Dorothea Lange depicting scenes from the forced displacement and incarceration of Japanese Americans in 1942.

A selection of images from Sam Biddle's "The Slides" collection.

A sample of the UAP-related footage collected and shared by the US government.

A sample of some of the photographs from the Natick Soldier Systems Center Photographic Collection.

Some details of AIS tracking data around some of America's busiest waterways.

Before the internet, Americans may have interacted with the federal government by stepping into grand buildings adorned with impressive stone columns and gleaming marble floors.

Source: USGS; National Science Foundation Arctic Data Center.

Some of the 368 navigation waypoints that the FAA renamed between 2015 and 2024.

Source: USPTO Trademark Design Search Code Manual.