Census Statistics Research Guide: Documentation

History and Procedures (in chonological order by publication date)

• Lunt, E.C. "History of the United States Census." Publications of the American Statistical Association 1 (March 1888): 63-97.
• Falkner, R.P. "The Development of the Census." The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 12 (November 1898): 358-362.
• Wright, Carroll D., and William C. Hunt. History and Growth of the United States Census. Washington, DC: GPO, 1900. Also from Google Books.
• Merriam, W.R. "The Evolution of American Census Taking." Century Illustrated Magazine 65, no. 6 (April 1903): 831-842.
• U.S. Department of Commerce. Census Bureau. The Story of the Census, 1790-1916. [1916]. Google Books
• Holt, W. Stull. The Bureau of the Census: Its History, Activities and Organization. Service Monographs of the United States Government, No. 53. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, 1929.
• Eckler, A. Ross. The Bureau of the Census. New York: Praeger, 1972. Bowdoin Main Libr HA37.U55 E25
• Anderson, Margo J. The American Census: A Social History. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1988. Bowdoin Main Libr HA37.U55 A53 2015
• Magnuson, Diana L. The Making of a Modern Census: The United States Census of Population, 1790-1940. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Minnesota, 1995.
• Publications - Demographic: Procedural Histories. Census Bureau.

Finding aids

• U.S. Department of Commerce. Census Bureau. Population and Housing Inquiries in U.S. Decennial Censuses, 1790-1970. 1973. "Charts display the inquiries asked in all the decennial censuses taken to date, in summary form, ignoring minor variations in the questions and question wording. One can thus see at a glance which of the censuses included an inquiry on literacy, for example."
• U.S. Department of Commerce. Census Bureau. Measuring America : the decennial censuses from 1790 to 2000. 2002. See the summary "Population Items on Principal Census Questionnaires", pp. 119-124.
  Govt Ref  C 3.2:M 46/2 (online).
• Schulze, Suzanne. Population Information in Nineteenth Century Census Volumes. Phoenix, AZ: Oryx Press, 1983. Bowdoin Main Ref Z7164.D3 S44 1983
• Schulze, Suzanne. Population Information in Twentieth Century Census Volumes, 1900-1940. Phoenix, AZ: Oryx Press, 1985. Bowdoin Main Ref Z7164.D3 S45 1985
• Schulze, Suzanne. Population Information in Twentieth Century Census Volumes, 1950-1980. Phoenix, Ariz.: Oryx Press, 1988. Bowdoin Main Ref Z7164.D3 S46 1988

Census Tract Manuals

• Green, Howard Whipple, and Leon E. Truesdell. Census Tracts in American Cities (Census Tract Manual). A Brief History of the Census Tract Movement, with an Outline of Procedure and Suggested Modifications. Dept. of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, 1934.
• Green, Howard Whipple, and Leon E. Truesdell. Census Tracts in American Cities (Census Tract Manual). A Brief History of the Census Tract Movement, with an Outline of Procedure and Suggested Modifications. Rev. ed. Washington, D.C.: Dept. of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, July 1937.
• Green, Howard Whipple. Census Tract Manual. 3rd, rev. and enl. ed.: Dept. of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, January 1947.
• Census Tract Manual. 4th ed. 1958.
• Census Tract Manual. 5th ed. January 1966.

Annual (and other) reports

• Executive Reports. Census Bureau. A selection of reports from the head of the census office to the cabinet-level agency secretary.

Legislation and related congressional documents

• U.S. Department of Commerce. Census Bureau. Legislation.
• U.S. Department of Commerce. Census Bureau. Legislation Relating to the Bureau of the Census. Washington, DC: GPO, 1917. (zip file)