Galesburg was the research focus of Knox Professor J. Howell Atwood from 1930-1960. Atwood developed the sociology department at Knox and used Galesburg as an area of study. One of his main interests was in racial issues. The Archives (Seymour Library, second floor) holds his papers. Amongst the papers is the document Statistics on Galesburg, which is a statistical summary of the demographic characteristics of Galesburg up to 1950, with some data on the social characteristics. [About this source... The accompanying archival material provides no information about how Atwood collected the data, although it is likely he relied on census data. One should use Atwood's material with caution, knowing he may have gathered the data from unknown, and possibly varied, sources and methods.]
The Atwood papers collection also contains a set of Galesburg spot maps. These maps, done by his students, are geographic representations of sociological data: health statistics, crime, demographics, etc. Maps relevant to topics in this course (see the list) are available for viewing in the Special Collections & Archives Reading Room. The data mapped to Galesburg are historical in nature and cover portions of the 1930s and 1940s. Since these maps are large and cumbersome, so be sure to look at the list first to determine which maps you need. Plan to spend a fair amount of time looking at them.