Kingsley House Membership and Occupation Datasets – README File
Created November 2020

This readme file provides additional context about the Kingsley House Membership and occupations of members between 1920-1926. This readme file also provides information to help better understand this data prepared for the WPRDC.

About the datasets:
The four historical datasets are transcribed from the annual report for the Kingsley Association. The four datasets included are data on:
* Percentage of members by age for the Kingsley House from 1920-1923
* Percentage of members by age for the Kingsley House from 1925-1926
* Percentage of member occupations for the Kingsley House from 1920-1923
* Percentage of member occupations for the Kingsley House from 1925-1926

These datasets were prepared by Adrianna Taraboletti as part of the Open Government Data course in the Master of Library and Information Science Program at the University of Pittsburgh.
There are some important notes to consider when looking at the data:
* Pages with this data were missing from the 1921 annual report.
* Data was not included in the 1924 annual report.
* The documents and data reflect the heteronormative nature and societal gender norms of the 1920s.
* The way that the age categories were labeled was changed between 1923 and 1925. This change is specified below.
* Names of fields are taken directly from the reports and descriptions in the data dictionary are based on what could be interpreted from the original document.

Kingsley Association:
The Kingsley Association is a non-profit organization that was established in 1893 with the purpose of providing services to working class families of Pittsburgh. They began by providing services through the Kingsley House in the Strip District and then moved to Lower Hill. They have also operated facilities in Larimer and East Liberty since 1919. From 1902 to 2006, the Kingsley Association operated the Lillian Taylor Camp in Valencia, Pennsylvania.

Kingsley House:
The Kingsley House was created as a settlement house. A settlement house is an institution in an inner-city area that provides educational, recreational, and other social services to a community. The purpose of the Kingsley House was to provide social and education opportunities for working class families in Pittsburgh that would not be able to afford it. The Kingsley House was meant to be a place that would be a source of enjoyments and support in times of need. 

1920-1923 Reports
In these reports the age groups for registered members are divided as such:
* Males and females under thirteen years old.
* Males and females between fourteen and sixteen.
* Males and females over seventeen years old.
These reports include information on the percentage of male and female members whose occupation is specified as “under school age”, which means they are not old enough to attend school. These reports also categorize male and female wage earners in the following age categories:
* Males and females between the ages of fourteen and fifteen.
* Males and females between the ages of sixteen and seventeen.
* Males and females over the age of eighteen.
These reports include a field for the percentage of members who work at home and that did not specify their occupation

1925-1926 Reports

In these reports the age groups for registered members are divided as such:
* Males and females under nine years old.
* Males and females between ten and fifteen.
* Males and females over sixteen years old.
These reports categorize male and female wage earners in the following age categories:
* Males and females between the ages of fourteen and sixteen.
* Males and females over the age of seventeen.
These reports include a field for the percentage of members who work at home and that did not specify their occupation.

References
Historic Pittsburgh Kingsley Association Collection https://historicpittsburgh.org/collection/kingsley-association-records?islandora_solr_search_navigation=0&f%5B0%5D=RELS_EXT_hasModel_uri_ms%3A%22info%5C%3Afedora%5C/islandora%5C%3AbookCModel%22&sort=mods_originInfo_type_sort_dateOther_s%20desc

Kingsley Association http://www.kingsleyassociation.org/