{"value"=>"<p>Camp inspection materials represent one of the Statistical Bureau’s earliest efforts in the collection and tabulation of data to support the goals of the USSC. Materials consist of camp inspection returns (completed forms); agent reports, which provide detailed narratives of camp inspections; and compiled abstracts of camp inspection data. Also present are various lists of inspectors and the regiments inspected.</p> <p>In the summer of 1861, the Sanitary Commission sent a corps of inspectors, or agents, into the field to complete sanitary inspections of U.S. military camps, with the goal of determining the general hygienic condition of the volunteer forces, and needs and capabilities of the medical staff. Camps inspectors used the USSC’s printed questionnaire forms (”returns”), to guide the inspection process, and to note their findings and brief remarks. The data on these returns also made it possible for the Commission to bring any serious deficiencies in camp conditions to the attention of the proper authorities. Inspectors would sometimes write a report, referred to as agent reports, to expand on the data collected on a return or, in some cases, in lieu of filling out a return. As camp inspection returns were sent in and received at the Statistical Bureau office, they were numbered in the order they were received, and the data was tabulated in the form of abstracts, which allowed for easier analysis. Camp inspection returns are dated from August 1861 through February 1864, and tabulation of returns continued until at least June 1865.</p> <p>Most of the data collected on camp inspection returns is nominal data (descriptions with no numerical value). This caused many of the responses provided on returns to vary greatly in detail, the manner in which they were composed, and the level of completeness, as it was up to the inspector to fill in the blank space provided for each question. Although this presented difficulties in tabulation, staff created a number of abstracts to analyze this nominal data, which provide actual content, of varying levels of inclusiveness, from the camp inspections returns. Present are abstracts arranged by camp inspection number, which provide a summary of all numbered inspections, as well as various abstracts tabulated by variables, which provide the ability to analyze the work of individual inspectors, the condition of a particular state’s regiments, or camps in particular regions. There was also an attempt to translate nominal data into numerical data using a numerical scale.</p> <p>The bulk of camp inspection materials present here were microfilmed as identified in <span class=\"title\">United States Sanitary Commission Records, Series 1: Medical Committee Archives, 1861-1866, and Series 7: Statistical Bureau Archives, Camp Inspection Returns, 1861-1864. Guide to the Scholarly Resources Microfilm Edition.</span> Wilmington, Delaware : Scholarly Resources Inc., 1999. Their present arrangement and description may vary. The guide can be consulted for the listing of camp inspection returns, which retain their original order. Agent reports were re-processed and this container list replaces the item level listing found there. Due to the incorporation of previously unsorted materials into this subgroup, the filming status of the records has been noted.</p>"}