The First Organisational Chart

The First Org Chart

In 1855, Brigadier General Daniel McCallum, later to become a Civil War officer renowned for “strict precision and stern discipline” as well as for his innovative engineering, created the world’s first organisational chart. This chart was a tool for operational clarity and a testament to aesthetic and functional design.

McCallum’s Multidisciplinary Background

McCallum’s career spanned several disciplines. As the principal architect in New York during the 1840s, he designed buildings such as St. Joseph’s Church and Rectory in Rochester. He then began designing and building railway bridges for the New York and Erie Railroad, revolutionising their construction with his “McCallum Inflexible Arched Truss Bridge,” which improved load capacity and required less maintenance than previous designs. After several promotions, he became the General Superintendent of the New York and Erie Railroad, supervising the entire railroad.

Daniel C. McCallum, 1860. Brady National Photographic Art Gallery (Washington, D.C.); Restored by Adam Cuerden

Challenges of Scale

The Erie Railroad Company had over 500 miles of track, more than any other railroad company at the time, but prior to McCallum taking over, it was plagued by disorganisation, in significant part to its sheer size. The informal and improvised management styles that sufficed for the operation of smaller railroads were inadequate across such an extensive network. 

“Any system which might be applicable to the business and extent of a short road would be found entirely inadequate to the wants of a long one.”

McCallum recognised the need for a systematic method to manage resources, staff, and operations across a geographically scattered workforce of thousands. The advent of the telegraph enabled faster communications across vast distances, allowing McCallum to receive information about accidents, delays and issues; and in order to coordinate this influx of data and manage a large, complex, and dispersed enterprise, McCallum combined his engineering expertise and architect’s mind to create the world’s first organisation chart, compiled and drawn by the civil engineer George Holt Henshaw.

Daniel McCallum & George Holt Henshaw – The New York – Erie Railroad Company Org Chart, 1855. It was thought for a long time that this org chart had been lost, but was eventually found by Charles Wrege and Guidon Sorbo Jr. in 2005.

These are the things I love about McCallum’s org chart:

Firstly, it’s beautiful. Most org charts that we see and use nowadays are, frankly, ugly. They’re full of right angles, squares, and solid and dotted lines. Why shouldn’t org charts be beautiful, interesting and a joy to look at?

Secondly, it’s organic, reminiscent of a fungal mycelium. Organisations aren’t machines, they’re ecosystems, comprising people, resources, processes, systems and relationships. McCallum’s org chart reflects the organic, sociological aspect of organisations far better than the rigid and technical representations we tend to see today. 

Mycelium. Image Credit: Tobi Kellner, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Thirdly, the “leaders” are at the bottom of the chart. McCallum’s described a “fountain of power”, placing leaders at the “back” and the people doing the work on the front line, the “sharp edge”, of work. It reflects the mission-command approach, empowering front-line workers to make crucial decisions without requesting permission all the way back along the hierarchy. 

Finally, the org chart visually reflects the very thing the organisation is tasked to do: in this case construct and operate railroads. In this sense, McCallum’s org chart conveys far richer information than simply who reports to whom. It shows where they are, what they do, and how the organisation actually works.

What does your organisational chart look like? Most that I’ve seen are dull, uninspiring, and full of right angles, with leaders sitting on top, looking suspiciously like a pyramid scheme. I wonder what effect it would have on our cultures if we re-envisioned our org charts as dynamic, aesthetically engaging representations of our workplaces as ecosystems. What if we positioned leaders at the bottom, or the side, and our organisation charts were beautiful, organic works of design? 

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