Census Day: Telling Brooklyn’s Story Through the US Census | Episode 15

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PAST PROGRAM | Virtual Programs

April 1 is Census Day, so we’re discussing the importance of the 2020 Census, and delving into the history, from the first federal census of 1790 to the present day. First, we will speak with Kathleen Daniel, NYC Census Field Director about this year’s census and what is at stake for delivering vital services and funding to our communities. Then, we will be joined by Nalleli Guillen, historian and project manager of Brooklyn Historical Society’s Revealing Long Island History project, who will discuss how historians, genealogists, researchers, artists, and tour guides utilize this rich well of information. This session is being presented in partnership with NYC Census 2020, and with the Brooklyn Historical Society and Prospect Park Alliance, organizations which have been partners in raising awareness about the census in Brooklyn.

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What was the First Ship Built at the Brooklyn Navy Yard?

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Diagram showing the lines of the sloop Peacock.

For the past two years, we have had the opportunity to work with third and fourth graders in the Brooklyn Historical Society’s CASA program. These young scholars are tasked with writing a book about a place or story important to Brooklyn’s history. In 2018, we helped students learning about Prospect Park, Green-Wood Cemetery, Greenpoint, and the Empire Stores. This year, students from PS 380 in Williamsburg took on the Brooklyn Navy Yard. The students decided to look at the Yard’s history through the lens of some of its famous ships, Arizona, Maine, and Fulton among them, but also the little-known Peacock.>> Continue reading

BLDG 92 & Brooklyn Historical Society: Brooklyn Navy Yard STEM and Sustainability Research

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Research and content development for STEM-based K–12 programs // 2014

Turnstile was commissioned by the Brooklyn Historical Society (now known as the Center for Brooklyn History at the Brooklyn Public Library) and the Brooklyn Navy Yard Center at BLDG 92 to create a research document about STEM and sustainability-related topics, both historical and contemporary, at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. This research project was designed to be the content foundation for the development of STEM-based K-12 programs at the Yard.

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Brooklyn Navy Yard Visitors Share Memories and Mementos

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Earlier this month, we hosted a group of retirees from central New Jersey on a tour of the Brooklyn Navy Yard. On nearly every tour we lead, we have visitors who have personal connections to the Yard – they’ve worked or served there, or had family members who did – but this tour was special for the sheer number and depth of people’s connections to the site.

One woman said she used to babysit the children of naval officers at the homes along Admirals Row; another went on a date at the old Officers Club. Two women had fathers who worked at the Yard, and in their spare time (and with a little spare metal), they fashioned jewelry for their daughters in the Yard’s workshops, which they still have – one was even wearing it on the tour!

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NYC Fleet Week Canceled, but USS Franklin Not Forgotten

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The Brooklyn Navy Yard has been a place of refuge for much of its history. During its 165-year run as a naval shipyard, it did not just send ships down the ways and off to war; it took in ships in the most desperate, hopeless shape, and put them back into fighting order. During World War II, more than 5,000 vessels were steamed, limped, towed, and dragged into the safe waters of Wallabout Bay to be tended to by the 72,000 men and women of the yard.

Of all the wounded ships to steam up the East River, none were more so than the aircraft carrier USS Franklin.

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