DIR Return Create A Forum - Home
---------------------------------------------------------
Carrie Brown : Murder In The East River Hotel
HTML https://carriebrown.createaforum.com
---------------------------------------------------------
*****************************************************
DIR Return to: For Researchers: Censuses, Directory Listings, &...
*****************************************************
#Post#: 2872--------------------------------------------------
The 1921 Disaster - The Basement Fire In Washington & The
Lost 1890 Census Data
DIR By: HowBrown1953
Date: August 8, 2024, 6:12 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
One of the biggest roadblocks for researchers in the US was been
brought on by the disastrous fire in 1921 which damaged most of
the available census records in Washington.
The original data for the 1890 census is mostly unavailable. The
population schedules were damaged in a fire in the basement of
the U.S. Department of Commerce building in Washington, D.C. in
1921. Some 25% of the materials were presumed destroyed and
another 50% damaged by smoke and water, although the actual
damage may have been closer to 15–25%. The damage to the records
led to an outcry for a permanent National Archives. In December
1932, following standard federal record-keeping procedures, the
Chief Clerk of the Bureau of the Census sent the Librarian of
Congress a list of papers to be destroyed, including the
original 1890 census schedules. The Librarian was asked by the
Bureau to identify any records which should be retained for
historical purposes, but the Librarian did not accept the census
records. Congress authorized destruction of that list of records
on February 21, 1933, and the surviving original 1890 census
records were destroyed by government order by 1934 or 1935. Few
sets of microdata from the 1890 census survive. Aggregate data
for small areas, together with compatible cartographic boundary
files, can be downloaded from the National Historical Geographic
Information System.
Aftermath of the 1921 fire which destroyed almost the entirety
of the 1890 census records
Who knows what we'd have for our case research had that tragedy
never taken place?
HTML https://i.imgur.com/VGuLw0W.jpg
*****************************************************
Page 1 of 1