The U.S. Census Bureau’s Release of Digital Images of the 1958 Census of Manufactures and Mineral Industries

Randy Becker, U.S. Census Bureau

The U.S. Census Bureau will soon be releasing to the National Archives for public access approximately 1.5 million digital images of completed survey forms from the 1958 Census of Manufactures, 1958 Census of Mineral Industries, and 1954-1958 Annual Survey of Manufactures. The original images have been stored for decades on hundreds of rolls of 16 mm microfilm, which have recently been digitized. These major business surveys collected comprehensive data on the industrial activity of nearly 300,000 manufacturing plants and over 36,000 mining establishments. Details include employment, payrolls, manhours, costs of materials, fuels, electricity, contract work, inventories, capital expenditures, electricity consumption, fuels purchased, water use, materials consumed, products and services produced, name, address, location, ownership, organization, and other items that vary somewhat by industry. Over 200 different establishment-level report forms were used to collect data from about 425 manufacturing industries, and nearly 30 report forms were used to collect data from 55 mineral industries. This paper discusses some potential uses of the data contained in these images, including possibilities to longitudinally link them to later, restricted-use microdata housed at the Census Bureau. Possible limitations and challenges are also described here. The paper also explains the authority and policies under which this information is released and sets the record straight on the availability of such data (Micarelli 1998).

No extended abstract or paper available

 Presented in Session 193. Building and Interpreting Censuses III