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

Brooklyn Historical Society
128 Pierrepont Street
Brooklyn 11201
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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 Eleanor Capson, November 3, 2009

Biographical / Historical

Eleanor Beiler Capson (1922- ) grew up in Flatbush, Brooklyn. She attended Erasmus Hall High School and graduated from Brooklyn College in 1942, after which she worked at the US Signal Corps at Fort Monmouth. Capson became a teacher and principal in Brooklyn after leaving the Brooklyn Navy Yard. After retiring, she moved to Riverdale in the Bronx.

Scope and Contents

In her interview, Eleanor Beiler Capson (1922- ) explains her work in the materials testing laboratory at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, where she tested the strength of materials used on ships and how to insulate wires used on the ships so they did not mold. She worked at the Brooklyn Navy Yard from January to September of 1943 and was paid a yearly wage, rather than by the hour. 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
  • Erasmus Hall High School

Subject Topics

  • Security systems
  • Shipyards -- New York (State) -- Kings County
  • Military uniforms
  • Wages -- New York (State) -- Kings County
  • Ethnicity
  • Transportation -- New York (State) -- Kings County
  • Women -x Education -- New York (State) -- Kings County
  • World War, 1939-1945
  • Women -x Employment -- New York (State) -- Kings County
  • United States -- Armed Forces -- Civilian employees

Subject Places

  • Flatbush (New York, N.Y.)
  • Bronx (New York, N.Y.)