The Old Town canoe with serial number 117979 is a 16 foot long, AA grade, Yankee model with Western red cedar planking, open mahogany gunwales, mahogany decks, mahogany trim, a keel and a floor rack. It was built between June and August, 1936. The original exterior paint color was white enamel with a blue stripe and Greek ends. This may have been similar to the images shown at
http://www.wcha.org/catalogs/old-town/designs/design32.gif and
http://www.wcha.org/catalogs/old-town/designs/design14.gif which were known as design numbers 32 and 14. It was shipped on September 30th, 1936 to Devon(?), Conn. A scan of this build record can be found by following the link at the attached thumbnail image below.
This scan was created with substantial grants from the Wooden Canoe Heritage Association (WCHA) and others as you probably know well. A description of the project to preserve these records is available at
http://www.wcha.org/catalogs/old-town/records/ if you want more details. I hope that you will renew your membership to the WCHA so that services like this can continue. See
http://www.wcha.org/wcha/ to learn more about the WCHA and
http://www.wcha.org/join.html to join.
It is also possible that you could have another number or manufacturer if this description doesn't match your canoe. Feel free to reply here if you have any other questions.
Benson