Welcome and congratulations, the Old Town canoe with serial number 147896 is a 16 foot long, CS (common sense or middle) grade, Yankee model with pine planking, open spruce gunwales, and a keel. It was built between February and April, 1947. The original exterior paint color was dark green. It shipped on April 29th, 1947 to Eveleth, Minnesota and returned for repairs on November 26th, 1947. Scans showing both sides of this build record can be found below.
These scans and several hundred thousand more were created with substantial grants from the Wooden Canoe Heritage Association (WCHA) and others. 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 donate, join or renew your membership to the WCHA so that services like this can continue. See
http://www.wcha.org/about-wcha to learn more about the WCHA and
http://www.wcha.org/store/membership to join.
It is also possible that you could have another number or manufacturer if this description doesn't match your canoe. There is a current project researching the use of steel hardware during the period when your canoe was built. Does this canoe have steel bolts, tacks, or stem bands? See
http://www.wcha.org/forums/index.php?threads/16107/ for more details. Feel free to reply here if you have any other questions. Thanks,
Benson