Caption
Here at last the picture of a nation begins. The millions of tiny sketches are sorted, analyzed, and finally united to form one vast mosaic of the Canadian people. This is the giant "brain" recently installed at the Dominion Bureau of Statistics. Its electronic document "reader" -- only one in the world -- can scan documents for 600 persons each minute, converting them to dots on tape, which the computer files in its memory. Publishing of census results will begin late this year. By December, 1962, most of the nation's portrait will be finished.
Release Date
May 16, 1961
Materials
Typescript with illustrations
Collection
CMCP fonds
Credit Line
Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography fonds, National Gallery of Canada Library and Archives
Caption
Age? 89. Employment? Retired. M. E. Brennan is one of 800,000 Canadians currently receiving the Old Age Pension. Changes in the age-structure of a population have wide-reaching effects. The census will show the size of Canada's young labour force, the number of retired.
Date
March 1, 1961
Accession Number
LAC-NFB96760
Materials
Black and white negative
Photographer
Enumber
e011177425
Collection
National Film Board of Canada
Credit Line
Library and Archives Canada, Mikan no. 205928
Caption
Married? Mr. and Mrs. Ernest Lewis have been married for 60 years. Marital statistics have great interest when applied to specific areas. The young man from Halifax should heed the old advice and go west to Vancouver where single girls outnumber the men by three to two.
Date
March 1, 1961
Accession Number
LAC-NFB96763
Materials
Black and white negative
Photographer
Enumber
e011177426
Collection
National Film Board of Canada
Credit Line
Library and Archives Canada, Mikan no. 205928
Caption
A nation is her people. To paint a portrait of a nation, one must know her people. A census is, first of all, millions of individual interviews. Here, at Carleton Lodge near Canada's capital, the picture begins. For these people, a census is nothing new; they've seen seven or eight of Canada's nine since Confederation. Decisions based on census data will affect the lives of all Canadians for the next decade. These interviews, these people, provide the essential working sketches for the portrait of a nation.
Date
March 1, 1961
Accession Number
LAC-NFB96768
Materials
Black and white negative
Photographer
Enumber
e011177427
Collection
National Film Board of Canada
Credit Line
Library and Archives Canada, Mikan no. 205928
Caption
Employed last week? To Mrs. Catherine Cowan, 60 years a housewife, woman's work is never done. The ten questions on employment in the 1961 census will show which industries have expanded, which declined; hence, where likely areas of employment will exist in next decade.
Date
March 1, 1961
Accession Number
LAC-NFB96772
Materials
Black and white negative
Photographer
Enumber
e011177428
Collection
National Film Board of Canada
Credit Line
Library and Archives Canada, Mikan no. 205928
Caption
Ethnic or cultural group? Thomas Mulligan has no trouble with this one. His, and another 18 million answers will add the colour to the nation's portrait. Canada is a land of many nationalities and wide cultural variety. The census will assess these varying contributions.
Date
March 1, 1961
Accession Number
LAC-NFB96755
Materials
Black and white negative
Photographer
Enumber
e011177424
Collection
National Film Board of Canada
Credit Line
Library and Archives Canada, Mikan no. 205928
Photostory #285: Census Taking from Coast to Coast: Canada Sits for her Portrait
Photographers
,
Maker
National Film Board of Canada
Release Date
May 16, 1961
Collection
CMCP fonds
Credit Line
Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography fonds, National Gallery of Canada Library and Archives
Main Text
Here at last the picture of a nation begins. The millions of tiny sketches are sorted, analyzed, and finally united to form one vast mosaic of the Canadian people. This is the giant "brain" recently installed at the Dominion Bureau of Statistics. Its electronic document "reader" -- only one in the world -- can scan documents for 600 persons each minute, converting them to dots on tape, which the computer files in its memory. Publishing of census results will begin late this year. By December, 1962, most of the nation's portrait will be finished.
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