Demography and Class, Work and Education in Boston, 1880-1930

This database, including both datasets and spatial shape files, contains information on occupation, school attendance, nativity, and race of the Boston population, by ward, for the years 1880, 1900, and 1930. This database can be used to visualize the profound changes in the economic, educational, and ethnic composition of Boston between 1880 and 1930. It illustrates, among other changes, the great expansion of secondary school enrollment, the decline of youth participation in the work force, the growth of white-collar jobs, the decline of unskilled labor, and the geographical distribution of the Boston Irish, Italian, Jewish, and African-American populations over time. This contextual knowledge is useful for historians researching this time period, and useful to non-historians by depicting the origins of fundamental changes whose legacy is still present in Boston today. The underlying data are drawn from the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series maintained by the University of Minnesota (see documentation for full citation). The data contained here can also be viewed through an interactive map hosted by BostonMap (http://worldmap.harvard.edu/maps/historical_boston).