6. Personal Collections of Navy Yard Workers and Navy Seamen
Riley sees his role as also the keeper of donations from the personal collections of Navy Yard workers and Navy staff, and he says the fact that families entrust the archives to manage such keepsakes is “humbling.” Above are photographs from the fire of the USS Constellation in which 49 people lost their lives.
Above is part of a collection of documents and memorabilia from the Seatrain Shipbuilding days, a venture to build crude carriers that ceased operations at the navy yard in 1979.
Application papers for a skilled worker named Abraham Friedman, whose family donated his collection:
Friedman’s identification cards:
This document shows that Friedman worked for some time at the Maspeth extension of the Brooklyn Navy Yard, a confirmation Riley found of various annexes he had heard of during the peak of activity.
