History

Notable Alumni

Census alumnus Herman Hollerith,
inventor of the first electric tabulating
machine. Photo courtesy of the
Library of Congress.

As a technological and methodological innovator, the Census Bureau has long been an incubator for talent. The census has always attracted smart people who have, in turn, played a role in improving the effectiveness of both the enumeration and tabulation process.

This section showcases a few notable alumni, including Herman Hollerith, whose tabulation machine company eventually became part of IBM, and Henry Gannett, one of the forefathers of geography at the Census Bureau.