This is formal summary of the results of the 1890 census from the Department of the Interior. This hardbound copy is 250 pages long plus a 5 page index at the end. It also includes a 1/3 page long ERRATA which is bound into page iii.

This book is in our collection because it was the first census to use Herman Hollerith's Electric Tabulating system. The 1880 census had taken 8 years to complete and it was estimated that the 1890 census would take 12 years to complete!!! That would be problematic because the constitution requires that the census be taken every 10 years and without the census data it would be difficult if not impossible to hold elections for congress and create a budget for the country. Thanks to Hollerith's brilliant us of electricity and punch cards the 1890 census took only 6 years to complete, half of the original estimate.

The 1890 census was important for other reasons also. This census declared that the population of the country had reached a point where the Dept. of Interior decided that the country no longer had a western "frontier". Also, a fire in 19221 destroyed most of the 1890 census records...that fire led to the creation of a permanent National Archives division within the government.