Chancellor's Day PL at BNY (Navy Yard Herstories)

This professional development workshop designed for elementary, middle, and high school classroom teachers, will use an extensive collection of oral histories from the women who worked at the Brooklyn Navy Yard during the World War II era to address themes of race, gender, and class in American history.

The day includes an interactive listening workshop with oral historian Sady Sullivan. The stories recorded provide windows into the everyday struggles and victories of women workers who sought a living wage, endured taunts from men and women at the time, and found new outlets for their talents and creativity in skilled manufacturing jobs previously held only by men. Participants will come away with new primary source audio files and strategies for how to teach with oral history in the classroom.

After a catered lunch, participants will visit women-led/managed businesses now thriving in the twenty-first century Yard and connect contemporary issues related to gender and class in the workplace to the historical context of WWII.

Brooklyn Historical Society is an approved provider of CTLE credits. Participating teachers will receive 5 hours for completion of this workshop.

Cover Image: [Women Welding], ca 1942, Black-and-White negative, V1988.21.49, Brooklyn Historical Society.