Preliminary Report on the Boatbuilding Industry in Canada 1931

[Benson Gray]

I always seem to find the most interesting things when I am looking for something else. A recent Peterborough canoe search led me to http://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2017/statcan/42-205/CS42-205-1932-eng.pdf which is the "Preliminary Report on the Boatbuilding Industry in Canada 1931." It contains a nice list of the Canadian canoe builders and page four shows the number of canoes built in 1931 and 1932 along with the value. A total of 2288 canoes worth $67.54 each were built in 1931 and 1096 canoes worth $63.84 each were built in 1932. (The Old Town Canoe Company built 2861 and 1495 units during these same two years for comparison.) It is also interesting that the 1934 Chestnut catalog showed their 18 foot long Prospector model canoe with an $85 list price. The 1930 Peterborough catalog listed the same model for $88 with two paddles. The Great Depression was a tough time to be in the canoe business.

Benson

 

[Pook]

Great Find!

I spend a fair amount of time moling through various libraries and Archives, too, usually looking for Military History related documents and I'm constantly amazed at some of the stuff you turn up unexpectedly. Like most other jurisdictions, the Government of Canada has spent an awful lot of time and money putting information online.
Library and Archives Canada also has an incredible amount of information digitized and online. A quick image search using "canoe" only brings up 1200 digitized photographs.

Off topic, but great find Benson.

Bruce