In March of 1849, Congress pass legislation that established a census board consisting of the Secretary of State, the Attorney General, and the Postmaster General. The board was responsible for preparing and printing forms and schedules for enumeration related to population, mining, agriculture, commerce, manufacturing, education, etc. The 1850 Census also increased population inquiries to include every free person's name (as opposed to just the head of the household), as well as information on taxes, schools, crime, wages, estate values, etc.]]>
U.S. Census Office]]> U.S. Census Office, 1850.]]> U.S. Census Office]]> U.S. Census Office, 1850.]]> U.S. Census Collection, RICHES of Central Florida.]]> U.S. Census Office and published by the U.S. Department of the Interior.]]>
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    The Census Act of 1850 authorized the U.S. Census of 1860 and stipulated that its provisions be adhered to for all future decennial censuses should no new legislation be passed by the first of the year of said census. In May of 1865, the U.S. Census Office was abolished and many superintending clerks were transferred to the General Land Office.]]>
    U.S. Census Office]]> General Land Office]]> U.S. Census Office and the General Land Office, 1860.]]> U.S. Department of the Interior]]> U.S. Census Office and the General Land Office, 1860.]]> U.S. Census Collection, RICHES of Central Florida.]]> U.S. Census Office and the General Land Office, and published by the U.S. Department of the Interior.]]>
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    Although the 1870 Census was conducted under the provisions of the Census Act of 1850, a new act was passed on May 6, 1870. The new census legislation required two changes in procedures related to questionnaire return submission dates. Moreover, penalties for refusing to reply to inquires were expanded to apply to all questions and questionnaires. The questionnaires themselves had to be redesigned due to the end of the "slave questionnaire," as slavery had been formally abolished slavery nationwide via the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. This left five schedules for the census: General Population, Mortality, Agriculture, Products of Industry, and Social Statistics. In addition, Charles W. Seaton, a U.S. Census Office chief clerk and later superintendent, invented a rudimentary tallying machine that partially alleviated the difficulties of tallying and tabulating questionnaire responses. Finally, the new superintendent for the Ninth Census, General Francis A. Walker (1840-1897), introduced employment examinations to test the qualifications of applicants to the Census Office, allowing for increased efficiency in the process of collecting census data.]]>
    U.S. Census Office]]> U.S. Census Office, 1870.]]> U.S. Department of the Interior]]> U.S. Census Office, 1870.]]> U.S. Census Collection, RICHES of Central Florida.]]> U.S. Census Office and published by the U.S. Department of the Interior.]]>
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    The newest act authorizing the Census of 1880 provided for supervision of enumeration by "supervisors of the census," selected exclusively for the collection of census data. All supervisors, as well as the superintendent, were to appointed by the President and approved by the Senate. Census enumerators were required to personally visit each household and family within his subdivision. The new census act also allowed for the collection of data related to the condition and operation of railroad corporations, incorporated express companies, and telegraph companies, as well as data related to the condition and operation of life, fire, and marine insurance companies. Corporations who refused to provide the census with "true and complete" answers were subject to fines. In addition, the census superintendent was required to collect and publish data on the population, industries and resources of the District of Alaska. Finally, the 1880 Census consisted of five schedules: Population, Mortality, Agriculture, Social Statistics, and Manufacturing.]]>
    U.S. Census Office]]> U.S. Census Office, 1880.]]> U.S. Department of the Interior]]> U.S. Census Office, 1880.]]> U.S. Census Collection, RICHES of Central Florida.]]> U.S. Census Office and published by the U.S. Department of the Interior.]]>
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    The Census of 1890 was authorized by an act modeled after the 1880 enumeration and signed into law on March 1, 1889. The 1890 Census was supervised by 175 employees and enumerators were required to collect all information by personally visiting each household. The 1890 Census included essentially the same inquiries from the 1880 Census, with some notable additions, such as questions about home and farm ownership and indebtedness; and the names, units, length of service, and residences of former Union soldiers and sailors, as well as the names of the widows of those who were no longer alive. Racial categorization was expanded to include "Japanese," along with "Chinese," "Negro," "mulatto," "quadroon," "octoroon," and "White." Herman Hollerith (1860-1929), a former employee of the U.S. Census Office, invented the electric tabulating system, which was widely used in the 1890 Census, allowing data to be processed faster and more efficiently. On October 3, 1893, Congress passed a law that transferred census-related work to the direction of the commissioner of labor. Congress passed another act on March 2, 1895, effectively abolishing the U.S. Census Office and transferring the remaining responsibilities to the Office of the Secretary of the Interior.]]>
    U.S. Census Office]]> Office of the Secretary of the Interior]]> U.S. Census Office and the Office of the Secretary of the Interior, 1890.]]> U.S. Department of the Interior]]> U.S. Census Office and the Office of the Secretary of the Interior, 1890.]]> U.S. Census Collection, RICHES of Central Florida.]]> U.S. Census Office and the Office of the Secretary of the Interior, and published by the U.S. Department of the Interior.]]>
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    Congress limited the Census of 1900 to content related to population, mortality, agriculture, and manufacturing. Special census agents were authorized to collect statistics related to incidents of deafness, blindness, insanity, and juvenile delinquency; as well as data on religious bodies, utilities, mining, and transportation. The act authorizing the 1900 Census designated the enumeration of military personally to the U.S. Department of War and the U.S. Department of the Navy, while Indiana Territory was to be enumerated by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs. Annexed in 1898, Hawaii was included in the census for the first time. In 1902, the U.S. Census Office was officially established as a permanent organization within the U.S. Department of the Interior. The office became the U.S. Census Bureau in 1903 and was transferred to the Department of Commerce and Labor.]]>
    U.S. Census Office]]> U.S. Census Bureau]]> U.S. Census Office and the U.S. Census Bureau, 1900.]]> U.S. Department of the Interior]]> U.S. Department of Commerce and Labor]]> U.S. Census Office and the U.S. Census Bureau, 1900.]]> U.S. Census Collection, RICHES of Central Florida.]]> U.S. Census Office and the U.S. Census Bureau, and published by the U.S. Department of the Interior and the U.S. Department of Commerce and Labor.]]>
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    The Census of 1910 was approved by legislation introduced in December of 1907 and enacted in July of 1909. The delay was the result of a disagreement over the appointment of enumerators. President Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) supported the hiring of enumerators via the civil service system, while Congress supported enumerators as positions of patronage. President Roosevelt successfully won the debate. This census act also changed Census Day from the traditional date of June 1st to April 15th. Additional questions regarding the nationality and native language of foreign-born persons and their parents. Funds for the U.S. Census Bureau were also increased to expand the Census' permanent workforce and created several new full-time positions, including a geographer, a chief statistician, and an assistant director. The assistant director was to be appointed by the President and approved by the Senate, while all other census employees were hired on the basis of open, competitive examinations administered by the Civil Service Commission. Despite the use of automatic counting machinery, issues with the tabulation process persisted. Finally, with the United States' entrance into World War I in 1917, the U.S. Census Bureau became a source of even more valuable purpose: the Census was able to use population and economic data to report on the populations of draft-age men, as well as information regarding each state's industrial capabilities.]]>
    U.S. Census Bureau]]> U.S. Census Bureau, 1910.]]> U.S. Department of Commerce]]> U.S. Census Bureau, 1910.]]> U.S. Census Collection, RICHES of Central Florida.]]> U.S. Census Bureau and published by the U.S. Department of Commerce.]]>
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    The Census of 1920 changed the date of Census Day from April 15th to January 1st, as requested by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which argued that farmers' memories and harvest information would be more accurate on this day. The U.S. Census Bureau was also authorized to hire additional employees at its headquarters in Washington, D.C., and to create a special field force to collect census data. The legislation authorizing the 1920 Census also allowed for a census of manufacturing to be conducted in 1921, and for such a census to be repeated every two years thereafter, as opposed to the traditional five-year census cycle. Furthermore, a census of agriculture and livestock was to be conducted in 1925 and to be repeated every 10 years thereafter. In addition, penalties for those who refused to supply information or those who supplied false information were strengthened. As a result of these changes, the censuses of population, manufacturing, and agriculture and livestock became increasingly independent of one another.

    The "usual place of abode," the location where residents regularly slept, instead of where they worked or were visiting, became the new basis for enumeration in the 1920 Census. Those with no permanent or regular residence were listed as residents of the location that they were enumerated at. Enumeration related to institutional inmates, and dependent, defective, and delinquent classes were also modified. Unlike the previous census, the 1920 Census did not have inquiries related to unemployment, to Union or Confederate Army or Navy service, to the number of children born, or to the length of time that a couple had been married. The Census of 1920, however, did include four additional questions: one regarding year of naturalization and three regarding native languages. Issues also arose as a result of changes in international boundaries following World War I, particularly for persons declaring birth or parental birth in Austria-Hungary, Germany, Russia, or Turkey. In response, enumerators were required to ask said persons for their province, state, or region of birth. Enumerators were not required to ask individuals how to spell their names, nor were respondents required to provide proof of various pieces of information. Race was determined by the enumerator's impressions.]]>
    U.S. Census Bureau]]> U.S. Census Bureau, 1920.]]> U.S. Department of Commerce]]> U.S. Census Bureau, 1920.]]> U.S. Census Collection, RICHES of Central Florida.]]> U.S. Census Bureau and published by the U.S. Department of Commerce.]]>
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    The act authorizing the 1930 Census was approved on June 18, 1929, allowing for censuses of population, agriculture, irrigation, draining, distribution, unemployment, and mining. For the first time, specific questions for inquiry were left to the discretion of the Director of the Census. The Census encompassed each state, as well as the District of Columbia, Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico. The Governors of Guam, American Samoa, the Virginia Islands, and the Panama Canal Zone were responsible for conducting censuses in their respective territories. Between the date that the census act was passed and Census Day (April 1st), the stock market crashed, plunging the entire country into the Great Depression. In response, there were public and academic requests for access to unemployment data collected in the 1930 Census; however, the U.S. Census Bureau was unable to meet this demand and the bureau was accused of presenting unreliable data. Congress required a special unemployment census for January 1931, which ultimately confirmed the severity of the economic crisis. Another unemployment census was conducted in 1937, as mandated by Congress. Because this special census was voluntary, it allowed the Census Bureau to experiment with statistical sampling. Only two percent of households received a special census questionnaire.]]>
    U.S. Census Bureau]]> U.S. Census Bureau, 1930.]]> U.S. Department of Commerce]]> U.S. Census Bureau, 1930.]]> U.S. Census Collection, RICHES of Central Florida.]]> U.S. Census Bureau and published by the U.S. Department of Commerce.]]>
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    Congress authorized the 1940 Census in August 1939, providing the Director of the Census the additional authority to conduct a national census of housing in each state, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and Alaska. The housing census was conducted separately, though enumerators often collection housing information at the same time that they collected population information. The Census of 1940 was the first time that the U.S. Census Bureau used advanced statistical techniques. In particular, the census used probablity sampling, which had only previously been tested in a trial census of unemployment conducted the Civil Works Administration during 1933-1934, in surveys of retail stores in the 1930s, and in an official sample survey of unemployment conducted amongst two percent of American households in 1937. Probability sampling allowed for the inclusion of additional demographic questions without increasing the burden on the collection process or on data processing. Moreover, sampling the U.S. Census Bureau was able to publish preliminary returns eight months before tabulations were completed. Likewise, the census increased its number of published tables, and was also able to complete data processing with higher quality and more efficiency. New census questions focused on employment, unemployment, internal migration, and incomes—reflecting on the concerns of the Great Depression, the country's housing stock, and the need for public housing programs.]]>
    U.S. Census Bureau]]> U.S. Census Bureau, 1940.]]> U.S. Department of Commerce]]> U.S. Census Bureau, 1940.]]> U.S. Census Collection, RICHES of Central Florida.]]> U.S. Census Bureau and published by the U.S. Department of Commerce.]]>
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