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Historical Consumer Prices: United States

Guide to sources for historical consumer price data including currencies used, foreign exchange conversions, and present value calculations.

United States

  1. ACCRA Cost of Living Index  
    Serial:  HD6983 .C6725 Hayden Reserve (older years in Hayden Journals with earliest years under call no. HD6983 .672x)
    Microfiche:  SRI microfiche no. A 0150-1 in Hayden Microforms (1993 - 1st quarter 2003)
     
    See "Section 2: Average Prices" which covers the average prices for the consumer goods ACCRA utilized to determine the cost of living index in 298 U.S. cities from 1976 to the present.
     
  2. Average Retail Food and Energy Prices
    Website: http://www.bls.gov/ro3/apmw.htm (Midwest region)
                      http://www.bls.gov/ro3/apne.htm (Northeast region)
                      http://www.bls.gov/ro3/apso.htm (Southern region)
                      http://www.bls.gov/ro3/apwe.htm (Western region)

    Shows U.S. and regional averages for food and energy prices back to 1980.
                
  3. Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis: What is a dollar worth?
    Website:  http://minneapolisfed.org/research/data/us/calc/

    Uses CPI to convert the dollar value of goods in one year to the value it would have in another specified year. Covers 1913 to present. Also offers estimated table of CPI values 1800 to the present for making manual conversion calculations.
     
  4. Historical Statistics of the United States: Colonial Times to 1970
    Book:  HA202 .A38 1975 Hayden Stacks and 
                C3.134:H 62/1789-1970 Hayden US Documents located on Ready Reference Table
    Website: 
    Part 1. http://www2.census.gov/prod2/statcomp/documents/CT1970p1-01.pdf 
    Part 2. http://www2.census.gov/prod2/statcomp/documents/CT1970p2-01.pdf
     
  5. Historical Statistics of the United States: Earliest Times to the Present
    Book:  HA202 .H57 2006 High Density Reference located on Ready Reference Table
     
  6. How Much is That in Real Money?: A Historical Price Index for Use as a deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States
    Book: HB235 .U6 M39 Hayden Stacks

    Includes prices for the United States from 1700-1991 and for Great Britain from 1600-1991 as well as American Revolutionary War currency depreciation tables.
     
  7. Inflation Conversion Factors
    Website:  http://liberalarts.oregonstate.edu/spp/polisci/research/inflation-conversion-factors

    Provides conversion factor tables to convert dollars for past years back to 1774 into current year dollars as well as converting future estimates 10 years out into current year dollars.  There is also a graphs section visually displaying other inflation-related information including the commodity price of gasoline and gold.
     
  8. Money and Exchange in Europe and America, 1600-1775
    Book: HG219 .M33 Hayden Stacks
     
  9. The Value of a Dollar : Colonial Era to the Civil War, 1600-1865
    Book:  HB235.U6 D47 2005 Hayden Doc Reference
     
  10. The Value of a Dollar: Prices and Incomes in the United States, 1860-1999
    Book: HB235 .U6 V35x 1999 High Density Collection
     
  11. The Value of a Dollar: Prices and Incomes in the United States, 1860-2009
    Book: HC110.C6 .V35X Thunderbird Reference
     
  12. The Writer's Guide to Everyday Life in Colonial America
    Book: E162 .T26 1997 Hayden Stacks
     
  13. The Writer's Guide to Everyday Life in the Wild West
    Book: F596 .M694 1999 Hayden Stacks

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