
Publicizing the release of the 1940 U.S. census data, LIFE magazine released photographs of census enumerators collecting data from household members. Yep, census enumerators. For almost 200 years the U.S. counted people and recorded information about them in person by sending out a representative of the U.S. government to evaluate them directly. By 1970 the government was collecting census data by mail-in survey. The shift to a survey had dramatic effects on at least one census category: race. Before the shift, census enumerators categorized people into racial groups based on their ... Read More



