Navy Yard photo album

The origins of the Brooklyn Navy Yard (officially known as the New York Naval Shipyard) date back to 1801, when the United States Navy acquired what had previously been a small, privately owned shipyard in order to construct naval vessels. By the time the Department of Defense ceased shipbuilding activities at the Brooklyn Navy Yard in 1966, eighty-eight vessels had been manufactured at the facility. In 1967, the Brooklyn Navy Yard was acquired by the City of New York and was converted for private commercial use.

One of the ships depicted in this album is the SS Jacob Luckenbach. The ship, formerly known as the USS Radnor, was renamed in 1930 by the Luckenbach Steamship Company. The ship was renamed again in 1947 after being sold. Thus its appearance in these photographs roughly dates the album to the 1930s-40s. There is also one image of a large zeppelin airship, which would seem to date the album to the 1930s, since airship use rapidly declined following the 1937 Hindenburg disaster. The appearance of the USS Chaumont (later renamed USS Samaritan), which was active from the 1920s-1930s, also supports this dating.