Jakob Herman van Zanten was the director of the Bureau voor Statistiek in Amsterdam (Office of Statistics, ABvS) besides which he lectured in statistics at the Municipal University of Amsterdam.
There is a biography of Jakob Herman van Zanten, written by H.A. de Gans: De kijk van een statisticus ten tijde van het Interbellum op de bevolkings-prognostiek: Mr. Dr. J.H. van Zanten, 1874-1944 (Amsterdam 1994). He is also discussed at length by H.A. de Gans in Population forecasting 1895-1945. The transition of modernity (Dordrecht/Boston/London 1999). This book contains a photograph of Jakob Herman van Zanten and a picture of one of his bookplates. The bookplate contains the motto: 'Statistiek. In hoeveelheden verhoudingen zoekend' (‘Statistics. The quest for correlations in quantities’).
The Dr J.H. van Zanten Foundation, attached to the University of Amsterdam, is an institute for the advancement of research and education in demography.
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