Sidonia Levine collection
Collection, MC/26
- Creator:
- Sidonia Levine
- 1938 – 1943
- Quantity
- 7 digital objects, 25 digital files
- Language of Materials
- English.
- Call Number
- MC/26
- Administrative/Biographical History
- Sidonia “Sid” Levine was born on February 12, 1919 and married Murray Levine on January 19, 1942, right before he shipped out to North Africa with the Army. Prior to this, Sidonia had participated in the Amateur Softball Association, playing a game at Madison Square Garden in 1939. She began working at the Brooklyn Navy Yard in November 1942 after working at Western Electric in New Jersey. Levine, one of the first women ship workers hired at the Yard, worked at the Yard from November 1942 to mid-1945, spanning the course of the World War II when there were shortages of male laborers. Over two and half years at the Navy Yard, Levine worked in buildings 4 as a blueprint reader and drafter in the mold loft where she interpreted the blueprints into patterns. These patterns, called templates, were crafted from wood, hammer, and nail to represent individual sections of a ship and could be up to 20 feet long. She also frequented Buildings 18 and 77 as part of her duties. Levine also took classes at Pratt Institute to learn more about blueprint drafting, but was eventually transferred to work as a “mechanic helper” for the male welders who used the templates she had created. Levine became first class mechanic and remembers working on the USS Missouri (BB-) and CB42 (presumably CVB42, better known as the USS Franklin D. Roosevelt).
- Scope and Content
- The collection consists of digital reproductions of original template drafts created by Sidonia Levine in 1942, Levine’s diploma for completing a War Training Course in ship drafting in July 1943, an undated Navy Yard patch, which was used to improvise a uniform for new female workers, personal photographs of Levine and her husband, and, finally, some ephemera from her softball games.
- Related Materials
- Existence and Location of Originals: Bob Levine, Brooklyn NY
- Related Archival Materials: See Sidonia Levine's oral history in collection SC/3, The Brooklyn Navy Yard Oral History Project.
- System of Arrangement
- This collection contains 2 series: Professional and Personal.
- Access and Use
- Conditions Governing Access This collection is open for research.
- Physical Access Physical originals are in the custody of the donor. No physical materials exist in the BNYDC Archives.
- Technical Access Technical access only. All material was loaned to the BNYDC Archives for digitization purposes.
- Conditions Governing Reproduction Material in this collection is made available for use in research, teaching, and private study, pursuant to U.S. Copyright law. The use must assume full responsibility for any use of the material, including but not limited to, infringement of copyright and publication rights of reproduced material. Please see the BNYDC Archives’ Policy on Access and Use for more information about reproductions and permissions to publish. Any material used for academic research or otherwise should be credited using the citation below.
- Preferred Citation Published citations should take the following form: Identification of item, date (if known); Sidonia Levine collection; MC/26; Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation Archives, Brooklyn, NY.
- Related Collections
- Bob Levine Collection
- Brooklyn Navy Yard Oral History Project