History

Notable Alumni

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

As a technological and methodological innovator, the U.S. 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 census-taking 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.