1890 census and the creation of the National Archives

[Rob Wick]

Interesting, Steve.

It was from the 1890 census that Frederick Jackson Turner was inspired to proffer his "Frontier Thesis," which held sway with American historians for decades.

That we have lost countless documents throughout the years is well documented (how's that for irony?). In 1973 the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis was heavily damaged by a fire that lasted nearly an entire day before being controlled. The amount of historical material lost forever is unfathomable. Add to that poor microfilming The military record of Everton Conger's brother Seymour are nearly illegible given that the file was microfilmed out of focus.

An author, Nicholson Baker, wrote a book called Double Fold, which talks about how libraries throughout the country, including the Library of Congress, have microfilmed numerous runs of newspapers and in the process ruined their original state, replacing them with sometimes hard to read copies that remain the only record available.

I can only imagine what will happen with records that are digitized when those files become corrupted. While I wholeheartedly support digitization efforts (such as Ida Tarbell's papers), I'm afraid we'll become too complacent and eventually have problems we can't even begin to imagine.

Best
Rob