Transcript Census Secrets - CU Boulder Libraries

Digitized Collections
1790 – 2000
Frank Wilmot
Government Publications Library
December 13, 2006
Can sticking gravel up
your nose really cause
idiocy?
Assigned causes of idiocy
History and Background:
New nation needed a census to
• Apportion the House of Representatives
History and Background:
New nation needed a census to
• Figure out how much each state owed for the war
History and Background:
Article I, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution
Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the
several states which may be included within this union, according to
their respective numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the
whole number of free persons, including those bound to service
for a term of years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths
of all other Persons. The actual Enumeration shall be made within
three years after the first meeting of the Congress of the United
States, and within every subsequent term of ten years, in such
manner as they shall by law direct.
Census Bureau – Progress
• 1790 – 1870: U.S. marshalls and assistants
• 1880 – 1900: Census Office within U.S. Dept.
of Interior
• 1902: Congress authorized the President to
create a permanent Census Office
Census Bureau – Progress
• 1903: Transferred to the new Dept. of
Commerce and Labor
• 1913: Dept. of Commerce and Labor split into
two; Census went with Commerce
First Census – 1790
First Census – 1790
Subsequent Censuses
Added in 1810
Manufactures
Subsequent Censuses
Added in 1840
Agriculture
Mining
Fisheries
Subsequent Censuses
Other social issued added in 1850
Taxes
Churches
Subsequent Censuses
Other social issued added in 1850
Crime
Pauperism
Subsequent Censuses
Spread geographically
Subsequent Censuses
Spread geographically
Subsequent Censuses
Spread geographically
1907
1903
Subsequent Censuses
1880 and 1890
• Took almost a decade to compile and publish
reports
Subsequent Censuses
1880: 22 Volumes, Compendium, etc.
1890: 15 Volumes, some with multiple parts
1910: 10 Volumes
Subsequent Censuses
Dropped topics reappear in later
censuses
• Technology
• Process data faster
• Publish faster
Census Programs
Population: 1790 to present
Census Programs
Housing: 1940 to present
Census Programs
Agriculture
Census Programs
Manufactures & Mining
Census Programs
Business
Census Programs
Construction
Census Programs
Governments
Census Programs
Indexes
• Bureau of the Census catalog of publications, 1790-1972
Indexes
• Bureau of the Census catalog of publications, 1790-1972
• Libraries…….30, 33, 40, 45, 57, 1656
Indexes
• NINTH DECENNIAL CENSUS: 1870
• 44…
• 45 Vol. I. The statistics of the population of the United
States, embracing the tables of race, nationality, sex,
selected ages, and occupations. To which are added the
statistics of school attendance and illiteracy, of schools,
libraries, newspapers and periodicals, churches,
pauperism and crime, and of areas, families, and
dwellings… xlix, 804p.
• 46…
Digitized Collection
• Census Bureau Website – Publications
• http://www.census.gov/prod/www/titles.html
Indexes
• Bureau of the Census catalog of publications, 1790-1972
• Census Catalog and Guide
(1946-1998 in print; 1995-1998 online; 1999 CD-ROM)
• Catalog of Government Publications
(1976-present online)
Digitized Collection
• Government Publications Library Census Guide