U.S. Census Office, Distribution of Those Engaged in Selected Occupations, by Race and Nationality: 1890 (1898)

This 100% bar graph from the Statistical Atlas of the United States based upon Results of the Eleventh Census, published in 1898 under the direction of Henry Gannett, displays the proportional distribution of wage-earners engaged in select occupations by race and nationality in the year 1890. Each color on the graph represents a racial or ethnic Census category. For example, the light blue portion of each occupation's bar represents "Native White, Native Parents," or native white individuals born to two native white parents. Within the light pink category of "Foreign White, Numbered," each number corresponds to country or region of origin. The graph is part of a larger analysis of occupations in the United States that begins on page 45 of the report. Wage-earners that are counted within the occupations are made up of males and females aged 10 and older. Gannett states that the study of occupations in the report "brings out many interesting and important facts regarding our foreign element as contrasted with our native element and with the colored" (p. 50). He goes on to point out the extent to which native white and Black people dominate agricultural, and how certain immigrant groups seem "attracted to" certain occupations, such as French Canadians to cotton milling and Germans to mining. In fact, while some immigrants arrived with training and experience that allowed them to pursue certain skilled occupations, others had no choice but to fill positions as factory and domestic laborers.