 So, we have been doing these health webinars. The NCLA government resources section has been doing these webinars for two years now, this month, and this is our 25th webinar. So, I am super excited about that. And if you are new to this, we have recordings of all, most of our, well, all but one of our webinars available on our website. We'll show that at the end. And today, we have someone I'm very excited about presenting because she was the first help presenter. She got this kickstarted. She actually named the series. Brina is the person who actually came up with the name of it. So, I'm very excited about that. And Brina Coonan is a member of the Research and Instructional Services Department and joined our library at East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina. And she served as a graduate student at UNC Libraries in the mid-80s for the legendary regional documents library in Ridley-Kessler. And she worked as a reference librarian at the University of Georgia and NC State University. And all of her reference assignments, Brina has remained intentionally and actively involved in state and federal government documents. She taught basic reference for the schools for SILs at UNC Chapel Hill and basic reference in government documents courses for the graduate school library program at ECU. And a longtime member of NCLA, she's chaired both RAST and the government resources section. And maybe she'll chair again. That would be a pleasure. But I'm very excited to have her do this session. I saw this for a business meeting that we had. She did the same session. And it's a lot of fun. If you're interested all in the census, it's a great way to learn more about the history of the census, kind of that narrative behind it. So, thank you so much, Brina, for presenting our 25th webinar. Well, thank you, Linda. And welcome to all of those of you who are attending live today. It's a real pleasure. Great. As Linda mentioned, I've been rattling around reference departments for a long time. And I use the census to assist researchers, as many of you have. But I've always been curious about how the census developed over time in the United States. And I just never made the time to really look into it. So this presentation gave me an opportunity to really do something that I wanted to do anyway. And there's so much more that I have to learn. I think you'll see that as we go along that just about every time we introduce something new, you get a little curious about it and would like to know more. I certainly feel that way. But it's been a fascinating journey. And I hope you'll enjoy this as much as I have. Let's go ahead and get started. Come to your census, the development of the U.S. census from its inception to the present. What is a census, really? It's a snapshot. We're going to look today at the decennial population census, not the census of agriculture or the economic census. Those are taken on the second and seventh year. We're just looking at the decennial every 10-year population census. A census is a count of the populations of usually a country as of a fixed date, generally systematically acquiring and recording information on a regularly occurring basis. You'll notice one of the things I'm most grateful for in the United States is the political stability to take a census. Many countries that are less politically stable in other parts of the world, that's one of the many things they don't have is that ability to take a regular census. The census gives us an idea of whether the population is growing or stable or declining, and it gives us some of the characteristics of the population. Age, sex, income, marital status, household structure. And at times, we have used the population census in the United States to record the names of revolutionary war pensioners, for example. And throughout our history, the census is intimately connected to the process of apportionment and representation in Congress. There have been population censuses all over the world from very early times. Ancient Egypt, Greece, China, India, parts of medieval Europe, Rome, and in ancient Israel. And the Bible gives us some insight on this. The Lord spoke to Moses in the desert of Sinai on the first day of the second month of the second year after the Israelites came out of Egypt. He said, take a census of the whole Israelite community by their clans and families listing every man by name, one by one, every man by name, one by one, and every man by name. So that will depart from that a little bit in the United States. You and Aaron are to count all the men in Israel who are 20 years old or more and able to serve in the army. Interestingly, later on when King David took a census, he got in hot water with God for that. This is a controversial issue among Bible scholars as I understand it. Some felt that King David was showing weakness in trying to find out how large his military force was, instead of appending apparently on God for victory no matter what the size of his army. Anyway, it's an open question and the concept of the census is now before us. For some of you, this is very old news, so please forgive my taking a moment to establish the distinction between the name census and the census data part of the census, the statistics. It's important to be clear about what we're referring to as we move forward in this little adventure today. The name census is the census rolls upon which the information was physically recorded about individuals. It is the name census that is of particular interest to genealogical researchers. The name census is released no earlier than 70 years after it's taken, which is why we've just recently had the release in April 2012 of the 1940 census. The data from a census, the numbers, the statistical data, is released as soon as it can be prepared by the Bureau of the Census. As many of you know that sometimes in the past we have not had access to all of the data until it's about time to take the next decennial census, but that's gotten a good bit better in recent years. The Constitution of the U.S. requires a census for apportioning the seats in the House of Representatives, although there is actually no requirement either in the Constitution itself or in federal law that census numbers be used to draw up the congressional districts, and there's a lot of politics surrounding the drawing of congressional districts. President George Washington, Vice President John Adams and the Speaker of the House, Frederick Muhlenberg, signed the 1790 Census Act on March 1, 1790, and you can see their signatures here on the slide. The first census began more than a year after the inauguration of President Washington and shortly before the second session of the first Congress ended. Congress assigned responsibility for the 1790 Census to the marshals of the U.S. judicial districts, and this system would govern census taking through 1840. Our population in 1790 was determined to be 3,929,000 plus. Let's keep that figure in mind as we move through our presentation and draw nearer to the present day. The enumeration of this consisted of only six questions on the 1790 Census. They called for the name of the head of the family, whether male or female, and the number of persons in each household of the following descriptions. Free white males, 16 years and above. This was to assess the country's industrial and military potential largely. Free white males under 16. Free white females. All other free persons and enslaved people, slaves. Remember that the only proper names available are the heads of household though. So if you're looking for a specific name of a family name that it really isn't possible in 1790, if that person was not head of a household. The second Census of 1800 was taken amid one of the most controversial presidential elections in American history. Think Adams, Jefferson, Aaron Burr, or Alexander Hamilton. It makes the Bush Gore look pretty tame. Jefferson won, of course, and made reference to the 1800 Census in his first State of the Union address, noting that the population had doubled in just 22 years. I've put a magnificent catastrophe up on the screen by Edward Larson because it is a fascinating period of history and Larson has done an unusually good job of capturing that period. In the 1800 Census, there were 101 men for every 100 women. 101 men for every 100 women. Half the population was under the age of 16 and 17% of the population were held in slavery. The third Census, 1810. The Thomas Jefferson's purchase of the Louisiana Territory happened in 1803 and this doubled the area of North America under the control of the United States. All segments of the population increased rapidly. James Madison was president during the 1810 Census. The cost of taking on this Census was $178,444 in change. Census 2000 cost approximately $6.5 billion or $60, $56 per housing unit. Field data collection is by far the most expensive component of the Census cost, accounting for nearly 60% of the total cost of taking a Census. The fourth Census, 1820. As was the case with earlier Censuses, up until the Census of 1850, only the names of heads of families are included. Aliens who had not been naturalized were included and there were more than 53,000 of these nationally. Some 4,600 Native Americans who paid taxes were separately recorded. The Secretary of State was the nominal director of the first five Censuses and responsible for supervision and compilation of each U.S. Marshall's tabulation. In reality, these cabinet officers did very little actual directing. But Secretary of State John Quincy Adams recognized that the population was beginning to engage in more than one sector, more than just agriculture. And he instructed for the first time that the Census tallied the principal activities of persons, including enslaved individuals, in three broad and exclusive categories. Agriculture, which at that time represented 83% of the activity. Manufacturing, 14% and commerce, 3%. 1830, the fifth Census. President Andrew Jackson's Secretary of State, Martin Van Buren, directed the Census in 1830. For the first time, the State Department provided a printed schedule for the enumerators to use. It was 18.5 by 16 inches, with columns printed on the front and back. So no more just writing on scrap paper. They prepared two copies of the returns and posted them in public places for inspection and verification. Congress added one new inquiry to the 1830 Census. Assistant Marshalls were asked to gather data on the numbers of deaf, dumb and blind, sorted by race. The population in 1840, the sixth Census, 17 million. It was just under 4 million 50 years prior to this, so we are growing. President is Martin Van Buren by 1840. The states east of the Mississippi River boasted more than 2,800 miles of track, and this number quickly rose as the decade wore on. Two inquiries were added to the 1840 Census, a list by name and age of all pensioners still drawing government support for the Revolutionary War service. And this was to help also with forecasting future pension payments and checking accuracy of the pension rolls. The other new inquiry was very controversial, very interesting story. Disturbing story. The patterns of race of insanity and idiocy were collected by race. A rise of insanity among blacks was correlated by geography, and data was interpreted to indicate that the farther north blacks lived, the greater the incidence of insanity. So more insanity among blacks in the north. You can imagine the uproar that ensued from this by thinking 42 took that long though. This was shown to be an error. In fact, it was discovered that insane blacks were tallied in northern towns where no black population even existed. But the data was never officially disavowed or officially corrected. So that stands out in 1840. 1850, this is a big kind of watershed year, the 7th Census of the United States. The president was Zachary Taylor. Sorry, Zachary Taylor had died, former president Zachary Taylor died in 1850, and he was the last president to own slaves. John Tyler becomes president until 1845, and James Buchanan is president during the time of the census itself. Rapid population growth is evident, seen even in the last census in 1840. Florida, Texas, Iowa, and Wisconsin were admitted to the Union. New territories were established in California, Minnesota, New Mexico, Oregon, and Utah, and California actually became a state in 1850, bringing us to 31 states. For the first time, schedules listed the names of every person in a household, although no relationships were yet shown between members of that household. But this is a bit of the watershed because it meant that for the first time, each individual, free and enslaved, would be given his or own line in the new forms. 1850 contains the first of two slave schedules. Slaves were enumerated separately during the 1850 and 1860 censuses, though unfortunately, most schedules do not provide personal names of enslaved individuals. In most cases, these individuals were not named, but were simply numbered and can be distinguished only by age, sex, and color. The names of owners are recorded. However, some enumerators listed the given names of slaves, some did, particularly those over 100 years of age. When these names are available, they are generally found in the Name of Slave Owners column. Other questions asked include whether a fugitive from the state, meaning if the slave had fled and had not returned, number of men emitted or freed, and whether deaf and dumb, blind, and sane, or idiotic. These are the terms used. Sometimes the listing for large slave holdings appeared to take the form of family groupings, but in most cases, slaves were listed from eldest to youngest, with no apparent effort to portray the family structure. In this portrait by Francis Edmonds of a family, the family is undergoing a visit by the census enumerator for the 1850 census. The census of 1850 was the first such survey in this country to require that heads of households provide information on their dependents. The process of interrogation caused a good deal of confusion, and it inspired numerous jokes. Francis William Edmonds' amusing portrayal features a father making a painstaking effort counting on his fingers to give the white-bearded census taker his family statistics, while his giggling children hide from sight of the census taker. This is an example of the slave schedule giving the owner name, the age, sex, and color of the individual. I wanted you to see, though, on the right-hand side, under the names of slave owners is where that slave's name appears. 1860, Eighth Census of the United States. Note that the population of enslaved individuals, 3,953,000, is roughly equivalent to the total number of individuals counted in the very first census of 1790. Abraham Lincoln is president. The census superintendent provided for President Lincoln the number of men ages 18 to 45 in the free slave and border states in order to compare potential military strength of the Union and Confederacy. The 1860 census was used to assess direct taxes to finance the war. The 1860 census was also used to reallocate the House of Representatives after the abolition of slavery. This is a very important census for researchers studying the Civil War, of course. This is a picture from the Saturday evening post of 1860. Some of the questions asked were sensitive topics such as age or family wealth or deaf, dumb, blind, idiotic, insane, or how many convicts were in the family. So this idea of taking the census in privacy issues goes a ways back. 1870, Ulysses S. Grant is president. An important census, again, for those studying our country immediately after the Civil War. The first census to record complete information for the newly freed black population. It was also the first census to apportion Congress after the passage of the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery. Literacy was divided into two questions, intending to distinguish between reading and writing capabilities. The count in the south was later discovered to be way too low, perhaps a result of the unsettled conditions in reconstruction south. 1880, 26 questions on the 1880 census. Remember there were six questions on the very first census of the United States. Of particular significance here were the questions regarding the relationship of each person to the head of household and the civil condition of each person, that is, married, single, widowed, or divorced. The big news in 1880 were the number of helpful changes in the enumeration process itself, mostly with regard to the training and overseeing of census staff. And quality control procedures were actually instituted. The 1880 census also included a one-time supplemental schedule, the defective, dependent, and delinquent classes schedule. The schedule included different forms to enumerate the insane, idiots, deaf, mute, blind, paupers, and indigent persons, homeless children, and prisoners. There is no North Carolina data for this, for those of you who are joining us from North Carolina. The 11th census, 1890. What a story, 1890. All right. First off, urban hollerists tabulating machine. Hullerist electrical tabulation system. The characteristics of the population could now be punched into cards and tabulated. For the first time, various combinations of population statistics could be manipulated, and it did speed things up. The 1890 census differed from earlier censuses in several other ways beyond just this advent of technology. Enumerators prepared a separate schedule for each family, and some expanded inquiries were added related to race, including some distinctions that seem very antiquated to us today. White, black, mulatto, that is a person with one white parent and one black parent, or more broadly, a person of mixed black and white ancestry. So many of these terms become offensive to us today, but it's the terms that were used in 1890. Quadroon signifying that a person has one quarter black ancestry. The Octoroon, one eighth black ancestry. These were the terms used. The 1890 census also included a question relating to Civil War service. So let's continue a little bit. 1890. Fire destroyed 25% of the 1890 census, and government ineptitude destroyed the rest. For those of you that are familiar with problems in 1890, if you've assisted, certainly if you've assisted genealogical researchers looking for information from the 1890 census, you've come across this, and perhaps you recall being told or knowing that the 1890 census was destroyed in fire. But it's the story behind it that is fascinating and dismaying. The censuses of 1790 through 1880 required all or part of schedules to be filed in county clerk's offices locally. Ironically, this was not required for the 1890 census. The originals and presumably only copies were forwarded to Washington. In March 1896, before final publication of all the general statistics volumes, the parts of the special schedules, criminals, deaf, blind, insane, et cetera, were damaged by fire and destroyed by Department of Interior order. But the general population, the name census rolls, were still in good condition, and this was verified as late as 1903. Despite repeated ongoing requests by the Secretary of Commerce and others for an archives building where all census schedules could be safely stored, as late as January 10th, 1921, the schedules could still be found piled in an orderly manner in an unlocked file room in the basement of the Commerce Building. Some 25% of the materials were destroyed and another 50% damaged by smoke and water. In December 1932, following federal record keeping procedures, the Bureau of the Census sent the Librarian of Congress a list of papers to be destroyed. And on that list was the original 1890 census schedules. The Librarian was asked by the Bureau to identify any records which should be retained for historical purpose, any records that should be exempted from destruction. But for some reason unknown to anyone, the Librarian of Congress did not accept the census records. Congress authorized destruction of that list of records on February 21st, 1933, and the surviving original 1890 census records were destroyed. The undamaged 38% and the water damage 37% that today modern technology might have been able to recover also went by the wayside. So it's just a disastrous story from start to finish. In North Carolina, the only thing that was recoverable were two townships in Gaston County and one in Cleveland County. There's a wonderful article by Kelly Blake, and I'll put that in our bibliography from the National Archives called First in the Path of Fireman, The Fate of the 1890 Census. And it gives the full story of this dismaying episode in our census history. Oh, by the way, as a side there, there have been efforts to recover some data from that, not from the census, but from other sources of data, from local records, from private records, even using family bibles. So there is some effort to recover what could be recovered and to recreate some of that, but the official census is gone. 12th Census, 1900. New questions on the census, not previously asked. The date of birth, the number of years married, and the year of immigration to the United States. The economic parts of the census became more elaborate in the late 19th century, and they are shifted to a different year from the decennial census at this point so as not to compete with resources set aside for the population census. So this is the beginning of what we know today that the economic census is being taken on the second and seventh year, like 1982, 1987, 1992, 1997. And this is where this process came to be separated out from the population census. There are two notable innovations in the actual taking of the census itself. The enumerator examination and the street book. Enumerators had to submit to an examination. They had to be tested for competence to do this enumeration. The street book remained a part of the census taking for succeeding censuses. It was used to account for every house and every building in the enumeration district. Very, very thorough process. The population has now swelled to 91 million, almost 92 million people in these United States in 1910. The establishment of a permanent bureau of the census, first in the Interior Department in 1902 and then as part of commerce in 1903 affected the 1910 census of population in that it made early planning possible. It also made greater accuracy possible. In previous decades, some padding happened, and while this was long suspected, there was no systematic way to really watch for it. So this adds stability to the census taking. On this slide from the 1910 census, named census, we see Langston Hughes, American poet, social activist, novelist, and playwright, associated particularly with the Harlem Renaissance. Langston Hughes was born in Joplin, Missouri. The second child of school teacher, Carrie Mercer Langston and James Nathaniel Hughes. Hughes' father left the family and later divorced Carrie. After the separation of his parents while his mother traveled seeking employment, young Langston Hughes was raised mainly by his maternal grandmother, Mary Patterson Langston, in Kansas. So here you can see that nine-year-old Langston is listed as part of the household headed by his grandmother as recorded in the 1910 census. It's fascinating to see real people. They were actually standing right there talking to his grandmother to take that census. The 14th census, 1920, the most significant result of the 1920 tabulation was the report that the majority of Americans for the first time in U.S. history lived in urban places, defined as having populations of 2,500 or more. On this slide, we see Charlie Chaplin. His profession was actor, and at this time he was still married to his first wife, actress Mildred Harris. They were only married for two years and parted on less than friendly terms. Chaplin would go on to marry three more times. The 15th census, 1930, included Guam, Hawaii, the Panama Canal Zone, Puerto Rico, Samoa, and the Virgin Islands. New questions on this census, homemaker status, and whether people had television sets. As the census was being tabulated, the Great Depression began to grip the nation. Congress and public called for data on unemployment from the 1930 count. In January, 1931, the Bureau of the Census did an additional special census of unemployment and published this along with the decennial census itself. In 1940, we are entering the war years, although of course the U.S. did not actually enter the war until the following year, following the attack on Pearl Harbor in December of 1941. Military personnel were and are generally counted based on the location of the duty station to which the service person is assigned. And the military family itself is counted where the family actually lives. So the military personnel counted based on the location of their duty station and the family counted where the family actually lives. So the U.S. military personnel assigned to a base overseas or to a U.S. military vessel with a home port outside of the U.S. are counted as part of the overseas population. Military assigned to a U.S. military vessel with a home port in the U.S. are counted as part of that home port. A major innovation of the 1940 census was incorporation of sampling as an integral component of enumeration, sampling. Entry into World War II of course had an impact on the operation of the Bureau itself and on the work and on the preparation of the final report particularly. The Bureau became heavily and almost exclusively involved in providing statistical info for defense and war agencies. Advanced releases were provided on foreign-born Germans and Italians in the U.S. and Japanese in the U.S. and Hawaii. The influence of depression, war, and post-war recovery is reflected in the change in the distribution of the population. We now have 48 states in the District of Columbia, greater urbanization of our population, and the appearance of suburbia. Population of those aged 15 to 19 declined despite the increase in total population. The number under age five increased by 42 percent, early years of the post-war baby boom. The 1950 census showed a continuing trend toward population concentration in metropolitan areas, as we mentioned, and the new designation urbanized areas of 50,000 or more appears. The standard metropolitan statistical area is born in this census, SMSA. 1960, here are some things that come to mind when we think of 1960. What a hectic decade. And the 100 percent, and as far as the census goes, the 100 percent in sample questions were placed on two separate forms in 1960 to allow for a more rapid processing and publication of the statistics. The changes in questionnaire content were more numerous in 1960 than in 1950. New population questions, such as the commute to work, whether enrolled in public or private school, the date of first marriage are asked. New housing questions included cooking equipment, clothes washers and dryers, and the number of bathrooms. The issue of privacy was raised in the case of the United States versus William Rickenbacker. Rickenbacker was the son of World War I ace Eddie Rickenbacker, and he himself, William, was an economic libertarian. As a defendant in this case, he argued that his refusal to respond to the 1960 census was justified because the census, for which answers are required under penalty of law, was an unreasonable invasion of privacy. The U.S. District Court reached a decision in favor of the government and found Rickenbacker guilty of violating census law. He received a suspended sentence of 60 days imprisonment and a $100 fine. The Court of Appeals upheld this, and the Supreme Court refused to hear it, so that's where this case stood. 1970. Most remarkable, the mail back census, the mailing out and the mailing back of the census, enters the picture and the routine dissemination of data in electronic form. This is the census in which the summary tape files are born. The STFs represented the first routine delivery of data in electronic format. The STFs were used on mainframe computers, and they contained far more data than could be or would be included in the printed reports. The data could be arranged in a variety of ways to suit the needs of the user. This is so commonplace for us today and so expected that it's hard to imagine that there was a time when we did not have this available to us. At the same time, the need for data intermediaries was born. Demographers who could work with electronic information making this available to us. 1980 census, Public Law 94-171 mandates the provision of data at census block levels. Census block numbering becomes universal. The 1980 census revealed some socioeconomic and demographic patterns that have happened since 1970. And one of those is a significant increase in the proportion of children living with only one parent. 1990 census, a technological triumph. This is where we got the tiger, the tiger system, computerized system from which our data is taken and from which GIS becomes possible. And it is during the 1990 census that data became available on CDs, so it democratized the availability of electronic information from the census. In 1990 census used two questionnaires, a short form that asked 13 questions to 100% of the population and a long form asking 45 questions to 20% of the population. The questions on the long form covered topics such as diverse as marital history, carpooling arrangements, and type of cooking and water heating fuel used. Many things worked well in the 1990 census because of the growth of personal computers and the introduction of the Internet. 1990 data were more widely used than data for previous censuses. Yet hanging like a black cloud over the 1990 census was litigation demanding that the census counts be adjusted for undercount in all 21 suits were filed contesting the 1990 census. Most of them alleging undercount. A lot of money was spent working on the undercount issues. There were a few overcounts as well. I had a good friend who was a census geographer and statistician out of Atlanta during this period and I remember talking to her about the magnitude of the problem and she was actually sent. A lot of senior personnel were sent out to redo the counts and she was sent to the Bedford-Stuyvesant area of New York to oversee that recount. The 2000 census population 281 million plus. This is the first edition of the multiple race option to be able to check more than one race. It is also the first census where a major paid advertising campaign was part of the census. So return your census form as part of our advertising scene. 2010, a challenge going forward. The largest census effort in history, 2010, and among the most sophisticated. Twice during the planning process consideration was given to allowing response through the use of the Internet, which was used on a very, very small scale in 2000. However, the risk to public cooperation with the census from an inadvertent release of confidential data during the census process was obvious and the potential for breach was certainly deemed relatively high by experts from well-regarded computer security firms at that time. But it is coming and much of the planning and research being done for the 2020 census is centering on this issue of being able to take the census online. That's really all I have to tell you today. The bibliography will give you an idea of where I got some of this prattle and allow you to go further if you like to learn a little more yourself. And that's the end of what I have today. I want to get you out on time. I hope it went your appetite as much as it did mine for learning more about the history of the census. It's such a fascinating document. It tells us so much about ourselves, both pleasant and unpleasant. And it's been a pleasure to be with you today.