History

Artifacts

1939 Physicians' Handbook

A 1939 Physician's Handbook instructed how to accurately record
vital statistics data.

In 1939, the U.S. Census Bureau issued this Physicians' Handbook on Birth and Death Registration to help doctors properly record all of the births and deaths they attended, including classifying the cause of death.

For decades, states collected vital statistics and sent them to the Census Bureau for analysis. In an effort to standardize states' data collection, the Census Bureau published this and other guides prior to transferring vital records analysis to the U.S. Public Health Service in 1946.

Learn more about interesting census-related artifacts on the Census Bureau's social media pages using the tag #ArtifactFriday. For previous #ArtifactFriday posts, visit the History Web site's Artifacts pages.