It long has been known that the U.S. Census of 1870 recorded Emperor Norton as “Insane.”

Much less often noted is that this Census also marked the Emperor as having his voting rights “denied or abridged.”

But, exactly how were these determinations made? Census takers were known as Assistant Marshals. And, clues (presented here) from the U.S. Census Office’s Instructions to Assistant Marshals for 1870 strongly suggest that Emperor Norton could have been deemed “Insane” and had his voting rights stripped based on little more than a private conversation between the census taker and the Emperor’s landlord at the Eureka Lodgings.

Included here are images from the Instructions as well as a rarely seen hi-res view of the full Census page showing Emperor Norton’s listing alongside the listing of every other person residing at the Eureka when the census taker paid his call to the Eureka on 1 August 1870.

What emerges from the listings is a portrait of an establishment that — based on the range of occupations of the tenants — should not be characterized by words, like “flophouse,” that later accounts have used to downgrade the Emperor’s residence.