Canadian industry in 1871 project (CANIND71), University of Guelph, Ontario, 1982 - 2008

The Canadian Industry in 1871 project involved digitizing the manuscript schedules of the 1871 Census of Canada, the only detailed industrial census returns to survive so completely from the past. The database includes more than 45,000 industrial establishments, each with up to 100 variables, including many that never appeared in the published census reports. This resource provides uniquely valuable snapshots of industrial activity just after Confederation, at a time of transition in technology, business organization and work discipline. As part of the project, a website was developed to provide access to the CANIND71 database, including an online search interface and a detailed user guide. The search tool was a SAS application that dynamically returned records from the underlying CANIND71 database in response to queries from links on pages within the website, and from user-customizable queries submitted via a search tool on the website. As of 2021, the CANIND71 website and online search tool were decommissioned. The database and supplementary materials are now available through the University of Guelph Research Data Repositories.