Hollerith, Billings, and the 1890 US Census

A note on Hollerith: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herman_Hollerith . Reading it, I learned another connectivity lesson. Hollerith worked for John Shaw Billings, whose name I recognized as someone connected to Hopkins who had worked out Vital Statistics for the US Censuses in the 19^th century. Apparently it was Billings who urged Hollerith to develop the punch card approach for the US Census of 1890. That census report is remarkable in that it apparently no longer exists (due to a fire and perhaps to some neglect). This is too bad because it included questions on disablement of household members and counted those affected by life-long cognitive problems (‘idiots’) and with other problems.

 

https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/1996/spring/1890-census-1.html