This album, comprised of 53 pages on which 195 photographs are mounted, contains photos by S.J. Bailey, Regional Director, Family Allowances for the Yukon and Northwest Territories. The images are from his trip down the Mackenzie River by canoe. Bailey includes very detailed and personal commentary with his photographs. Most of the images are of the conditions that Native and Inuit people were living in, even with the benefit of the family allowances program, first implemented in 1944. Specifically, most of the photographs are of families inside or outside their home, and the poverty that existed.
The following are some examples of Bailey's personal opinions written in the album: encouraging social service workers to come and work in the impoverished Native communities; despairing of the physical and mental state people are living in; suggestions for implementing a modified "Borstal" system in Fort Smith for the Native boys who are getting into trouble; reproaching non-Native people and missionaries for not interacting with Native and Inuit people; criticizing Colonel Cornwall's methods of investigating economic conditions of the Natives in the Northwest Territories.
The following places can be found in the album: Lake Labiche; Fort McKay, Alberta; Athabaska River; Fort Chipewyan, Alberta; Mackenzie River; Fort Simpson; Yellowknife; Fort Wrigley, Wrigley Harbour; Fort Good Hope; Arctic Red River; Fort McPherson, N.W.T.; Pelican Rapids; Fort Smith, N.W.T.; Fort Resolution; Great Slave Lake; Hay River; Fort Providence; Fort Norman; Sans Sous Rapids; Ramparts (along Mackenzie River); Aklavik; Tuktoyuktuk settlement.
The following events can be found in the album: Native children on way to morning mass; funeral procession, Fort Resolution; Marian Congress parade; road construction; Natives gathering for Treaty payments; Native chiefs criticizing living conditions; meeting called to discuss Family Allowances, Fort McPherson; school picnic; playing cards in the signals barracks (Native girls and Hughie Cunningham); Constable Stan Byer, R.C.M.P, treating throat of Joan Nazon; Inuit boy playing baseball; dancing in Aklavik; community meeting, Hay River; drying fish.
The following objects can be found in the album: mission hospitals; canoe; cabins; Native residential schools and churches; Hudson's Bay Company calendars in homes; Canadian Pacific Airlines airplanes; cut up white whale ready for drying; Alberta and N.W.T. boundary mark; Hudson's Bay Company riverboats; community hall, Fort Smith (interiors too); interiors of Native and Inuit homes; Roman Catholic church, Fort Hope (interiors); midnight sun; R.C.M.P kennels.
The following people can be found in the album: S.J. Bailey; Hughie Cunningham, guide, and father; Mr. Louttet, H.B.Co post manager; Sergeant Major O'Brien; Dr. and Mrs. Mulvihill, Indian agent; W.B. Shead, Indian Affairs Branch; Native chiefs; Father Mokwa; Grey Nuns; Madeleine Adjerckon; Jimmy Camsell and family; Mrs. McKay; Philip Moses; Jack Nayally, wooden leg; Rosie Hattie and children; Mrs. Henry Horrissey and children; Jim Harris and family, nomad; Jimmy Thompson and family; Marie Norman; Mose Adrain; Chief Andre Lecour; Cliff Hagan with children; Caroline MacKay with child; Inuit woman with facial markings; Dr. Levy; Mrs. Atele Sabourin; Victoria Martel with daughter Mabel and grandchildren; Mr. and Mrs. Lapine; Baptiste Tambour and family; Joe Lafferty; Angus McLeod and family; Joseph Bouvier and family; Chief Joseph Norwegian's daughter and her family; Fred Fraser, mining recorder; Alphonse Bonnet and family; Frank Horessy and family; Chief Colins Campbell; Colonel Cornwall; Father Robin; Widow Gardebois and grandson Johnnie; Beth Lafferty and child; Marca Coyne; Ernest Kindo and family; Constable Stan Byer, R.C.M.P.; Louis Cardinal and wife, nomad; William and Mary Firth and family; Chief Julius; Phil Allen, aspiring writer; Native, Interracial, and Inuit peoples; Peter Thompson and wife.
