digitized collections 1790 ? 2000

Digitized Collections1790 – 2000

Frank WilmotGovernment 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

Pauperism

Crime

Subsequent Censuses

Spread geographically

Subsequent Censuses

Spread geographically

Subsequent Censuses

Spread geographically

1903

1907

Subsequent Censuses1880 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