Roper Center for Public Opinion Research

The Roper Center for Public Opinion Research, which now is located at the University of Connecticut, and is one of the world's largest collections of data on the social sciences, was founded at Williams College in 1946 by Elmo Roper, who anticipated the future value of the studies he and other survey research pioneers were conducting to better understand what was on the collective minds of the public. His vision was of the academic scholar in pursuit of the thoughts, opinions, and behaviors of the common person during the early days of polling. Shortly thereafter he was joined by George Gallup, Sr. who contributed his 17 years of data, followed by Archibald Crossley, the National Opinion Research Center, Opinion Research Corporation, and the earliest state ...