The Statistical Atlas
1874 · Chromolithographed Statistical Maps · Work 692 of 1,871
A large statistical atlas of 1874 lying open on an oak map table in a government library in Washington, a folio about fifty-six centimetres tall bound in half leather and dark cloth, open at a double plate in chromolithography, the left plate a map of the continent as a flat area in graded tones of pale ochre, brown and deep brown, darkest in the east, with touches of green, the right plate a grid of square diagrams in red, blue, ochre and grey, the margins carrying only fine grey strokes, two hands in dark wool sleeves with white cuffs holding the page by its corner, behind the table wooden plan cabinets, cool north light through a tall window on the left.
- What it was used for
- The Statistical Atlas of the United States Based on the Results of the Ninth Census 1870 turned the results of a census into maps and diagrams instead of tables. Francis Amasa Walker, superintendent of the 1870 census and chief of the Bureau of Statistics, conceived it and supervised its production. It was printed in 1874 by the Government Printing Office in Washington; the 60 large maps were chromolithographed by Julius Bien in New York, most of them in colour. The volume mixed maps, diagrams, tables and essays by scientists, economists and officials of several government departments — the title itself announces "contributions from many eminent men of science and several departments of the government".
- What was new
- What was new was that an entire census appeared as a picture: distributions across the whole country in graded colours, instead of columns the reader has to add up. Individual thematic maps based on census data existed before, such as an 1861 map of the share of slaves in each county of the southern states, drawn from the 1860 census. The barb lies in the material: Walker himself thought the census he was so carefully depicting grossly defective. In his introduction to the population volume of the Ninth Census he called it barbarous and grossly defective; in his introduction to the Compendium he named four faults of procedure: supervision by the marshals, the formation of subdivisions, the appointment of assistants, and their pay. The Census Office could veto neither the marshals' division of territory nor the appointment of enumerators; of the southern enumerators it could only express its disapproval.
What the sources leave open: Walker's introduction was not consulted in the original; his judgements are given here as reported by IPUMS (University of Minnesota) and are deliberately paraphrased, not quoted. The atlas itself was not consulted; the figure of 60 maps comes from a single source. Calling it the first comprehensive thematic atlas produced by any nation is the assessment of Jeremy Norman (History of Information).