The Constellation Fire: The Accident That Changed the Brooklyn Navy Yard | Episode 173

PAST PROGRAM | Virtual Programs

On December 19, 1960, the Brooklyn Navy Yard suffered the worst accident in its history, a devastating fire aboard the USS Constellation that killed 50 workers. This fire was not only a tragedy for those who were killed and injured and their families, but it marked a turning point in the Yard’s history that many believe led to its closure less than six years later. Over the years, we have had the honor to meet many people that lived through this ordeal, and we will share oral histories and photos from the Brooklyn Navy Yard Archives to reconstruct this fateful day and examine its impact on individuals, the city, and the Navy.

>> Continue reading

Veterans Day in Prospect Park: Commemorating the Great War | Episode 160

A statue of a soldier who stands clutching his gun and looking off into the distance as an angel begins to wrap her wing and arm around him

PAST PROGRAM | Virtual Programs

More than 2,800 Brooklynites were killed in World War I, and Prospect Park quickly became one of the borough’s key points of remembrance and commemoration. On this virtual walking tour for Veterans Day, we will explore some of the memorial sites in the park and they people they memorialize, including the memorial trees along Prospect Park West, Bartel-Pritchard Square, and the striking 1921 memorial by Henry Augustus Lukeman. We will also discuss the ways in which the park was mobilized and transformed as a result of the war.

>> Continue reading