It was brought to my attention by a member of our staff--who is turning out to be something of a radio buff--that the Brooklyn Navy Yard radio station (call letters NAH) may well have been one of the first to learn the names of survivors of the RMS Titanic as relayed by the passenger ship, RMS Carpathia. Could this be true? It seemed likely given our position at the forefront of radio technology at the time, but I needed to dig a little deeper. A peek into ye olde New York Times revealed that indeed this is correct. NAH was among a handful of radio stations able to pick up the signal of the RMS Carpathia as her crew shared details of their rescue mission back to a nervously expectant American public.Continue Reading >
Drum roll please...we have a winner! Congratulations to BLDG 92's newest member, Katja Schroeder. Her interest in how technology enables sustainable development is of great interest to us too! The winning entry; "@BLDG92 My #BLDG92Member entry: home & office in Ft Greene, live/breathe sustainable tech comms; love how you develop the yard"
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The 1940 census has been released! I might be tipping my hand here, but to archivists such as myself this day is akin to Christmas. You see, although we are able to access statistical information from even our most recent census reports, the details, including family names, individual professions, household incomes and addresses are suppressed for 72 years to protect the privacy of census participants. This census, which was taken the week of March 24th 1940, tells the human scale story of a population struggling to pull out of the Great Depression, and a larger story of a Nation preparing for its possible involvement in a second world war.Continue Reading >