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Oral History Interview with Sidonia Levine, November 18, 2006, inclusive

Scope and Contents

In this interview, Sidonia Kessler Levine (1919- ) talks about how she came to work at the Brooklyn Navy Yard after spending some time at Western Electric. She mentions that she did very well on the Navy Yard test, on which she received the 15th best score out of 500 participants. While at the Navy Yard, Levine had her picture taken for the Shipworker and did an interview with the Brooklyn Eagle. She talks a lot about the camaraderie in the yard and the lasting friendships she made with the women she worked with in Building 4. She also details her job where she converted blueprints into wooden templates and attended extra school at Pratt for blueprint reading. She made her work uniform herself. Levine describes her visit to the Navy Yard in the 1990s as "sterile" compared to the liveliness of the atmosphere while she worked there. Interview conducted by Jennifer Egan.

Biographical / Historical

Sidonia Kessler Levine (1919- ) began working at the Brooklyn Navy Yard in November of 1942. She worked as a mechanic helper and shipfitter in Building 4 while her husband was deployed. Levine currently lives in Florida.

Conditions Governing Access

This interview can be accessed onsite at Brooklyn Historical Society's Othmer Library and online at the Oral History Portal.

Center for Brooklyn History
128 Pierrepont Street
Brooklyn, NY 11201