An official website of the United States government                

----

end of header

# History

###### You are here: Census.gov ›  History ›  Agency History › Notable Alumni › Alexander Graham Bell

Skip top of page navigation

                - History Main
                - Agency History                    - Director Biographies
                  - Census Facilities
                  - Suitland, MD
                  - Notable Alumni
                - Innovations                    - Data Collection
                  - Technology
                - Programs                    - Agriculture
                  - Demographic
                  - Housing
                  - Economic
                  - Geography
                  - Governments
                - Through the Decades                    - Fast Facts
                  - Overview
                  - Index of Questions
                  - Questionnaires
                  - Census Instructions
                - Genealogy                    - Decennial Census Records
                  - Other Resources
                - Reference                    - Data@Museums
                  - Artifacts
                  - Lesson Plans
                  - Legislation
                  - Maps
                  - Oral Histories
                  - Privacy & Confidentiality
                  - Apportionment
                  - Publications 
                - Home Page Archive                    - 2024
                  - 2023
                  - 2022
                  - 2021
                  - 2020
                  - 2019
                  - 2018
                  - 2017
                  - 2016
                  - 2015
                  - 2014 
                - FAQs                    - Genealogy
                  - Agency History
                  - Demographic
                  - Economic
                  - Governments
                  - Agriculture
                  - Geography
                  - Innovations
                  - Miscellaneous

### Notable Alumni

### Also in this Section:

                          - Census Supervisors and Employees
                          - U.S. Marshals
                          - Barbara Ann Bailar
                          - James F. Holmes
                          - Alexander Graham Bell
                          - W.E.B. Du Bois
                          - Shirley A. Chisholm
                          - Kirby Puckett
                          - Wilbur L. Ross, Jr.
                          - James Corbett
                          - Herman Hollerith
                          - Cyrus Guernsey Pringle
                          - Thomas Commerford Martin
                          - John Wesley Langley
                          - Ivan Petrof
                          - Warren Mitofsky
                          - Halbert L. Dunn
                          - Davis Rich Dewey
                          - Leslie Kish
                          - Joseph Adna Hill
                          - Lafayette Parker "Pick" Temple
                          - Murray Feshbach
                          - Thelma L. Strabel
                          - Howard Sutherland
                          - John Shaw Billings
                          - W. Edwards Deming
                          - Henry Gannett
                          - Morris H. Hansen
                          - Roger Herriot
                          - Shirley Kallek
                          - Bernard Malamud
                          - Julius Shiskin
                          - Conrad Taeuber

## Alexander Graham Bell

**Alexander Graham Bell** (1847–1922):  Although Alexander Graham Bell achieved worldwide fame as the first person to patent the telephone on March 7, 1876, he was not content with merely revolutionizing human communication. In addition to this groundbreaking legacy, Bell was also a teacher, a speech therapist, and a special agent of the U.S Census Bureau.

As early as 1889, Bell made recommendations to the Superintendent of the Census Office, Robert Percival Porter, for proper enumeration of the deaf and blind in the census. He emphasized the need for properly phrased questions in order to discern true levels of disability and the acquisition of these disabilities. The Census Office did take into account some of Bell's recommendations for the 1890 Census, however it did not fully implement all of them.

On October 10, 1900, Census Director William R. Merriam appointed Alexander Graham Bell "Expert Special Agent of the Census Office, for the preparation of the Report on the Deaf and the Blind." Although the report was not completed until 1906, the 1900 Census data on the blind, deaf, and dumb was the most comprehensive in census history.

To learn more about Alexander Graham Bell's census work, read Alexander Graham Bell and the 1900 Census.

CONNECT WITH US**********

                            - Information Quality
                            - Data Linkage Infrastructure
                            - Data Protection and Privacy Policy
                            - Accessibility
                            - FOIA
                            - Inspector General
                            - No FEAR Act
                            - U.S. Department of Commerce
                            - USA.gov

----

Measuring America's People, Places, and Economy

Is this page helpful?
YesNo

NO THANKS

255 characters maximum255 characters maximum reached

Thank you for your feedback.Comments or suggestions?