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Guide to the Brooklyn Navy Yard oral history collection ARC.003

Brooklyn Historical Society
128 Pierrepont Street
Brooklyn 11201
718-222-4111
library@brooklynhistory.org


Brooklyn Historical Society

Collection processed by Amy Lau, Mary Mann, Aliki Caloyeras, and Margaret Fraser

This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on  , September 3, 2020
Finding aid written in English using Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Container List

Oral History Interview with Carmela Zuza, July 3, 2008

Biographical / Historical

Carmela Celardo Zuza (1924- ) grew up in Crown Heights and Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, with eight siblings. Her parents moved to the United States from Naples, Italy after they were married. Carmela worked in small factory jobs before she began working at the Brooklyn Navy Yard in 1942 as an arc welder.

Scope and Contents

In her interview, Carmela Zuza (1924- ) discusses her experience growing up in an ethnically diverse neighborhood in Brooklyn. She describes in detail the garden that her parents kept, the beer and wine her parents made, and other local foods. She expresses the pride she felt doing her work at the Brooklyn Navy Yard and seeing the christening of the USS Missouri battle ship. Zuza also talks about transportation to and from work, security at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, discrimination, uniforms and clothing for women, gender relations, social activities and dating. Interview conducted by Sady Sullivan.

Conditions Governing Access

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

Subject Organizations

  • New York Naval Shipyard
  • Missouri (Battleship : BB 63)
  • Franklin (Aircraft carrier)

Subject Topics

  • African American women
  • Dating (Social customs)
  • Cranes, derricks, etc
  • Ethnicity
  • Friendship
  • Labor unions -- New York (State) -- New York
  • Local transit
  • Italian Americans -- New York (State) -- Kings County
  • Work environment -- New York (State) -- Kings County
  • Wages -- New York (State) -- Kings County
  • Shipyards -- New York (State) -- Kings County
  • Shipfitting
  • Shipbuilding -- New York (State) -- Kings County
  • Women -x Employment -- New York (State) -- Kings County
  • World War, 1939-1945
  • Gardens
  • Family life
  • Welding
  • Race relations -- New York (State) -- Kings County

Subject Places

  • Crown Heights (New York, N.Y.)
  • Coney Island (New York, N.Y.)
  • Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.)
  • Dean Street (New York, N.Y.)
  • Bedford-Stuyvesant (New York, N.Y.)
  • Washington Avenue (Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.)
  • Sands Street (New York, N.Y.)