Levy, David, 1979 August 07
Abstract
The Levy interview provides details about discrimination against Jewish people and anti-Semitism, social and living conditions for African American West Baltimoreans in the 1920’s, and business practices from the 1920’s-‘40’s. It also provides a comparison of life in America to that in Scotland. There is discussion of interfaith interactions in the Mt. Washington neighborhood (Christian Science, Judaism, Roman Catholicism) as well.
Dates
- 1979 August 07
Creator
- Adams, Janet (Interviewer, Person)
Conditions Governing Access
The collection is open for research use.
Biographical / Historical
David Levy was born in Edinburgh, Scotland on November 11, 1896 to a German mother and a Lithuanian father, both of the Jewish faith. He attended public school in 1907 until entering private school in 1911. From 1911-15 he received business trading from his father, a picture frame maker. He moved to Baltimore in 1915. From 1915-1918, the narrator worked as a marine draftsman for Baltimore Drydock and Shipbuilding Company; from 1920-1945 owned and operated a store (clothing, jewelry, furniture) in West Baltimore. He married Ann Turow on May 19, 1918 in Baltimore. The couple had one child. Levy was a member of the Ethical Society and served as president of the Tuesday Club from 1949-1965.
Extent
55 Minutes
Language of Materials
From the Collection: English
Existence and Location of Originals
Original format: 1 compact cassette
Physical Description
Biography form, interview notes, tape index, & transcript : 23 pages
Scope and Contents
The Baltimore Neighborhood Heritage Project Oral History Collection contains paper records and audiocassette recordings from 1978 through 1980. The paper records are composed of the files kept on each narrator (the person being interviewed) and the administrative needs of the project. Narrator records contain biography forms, interview notes, and tape indexes for approximately 212 narrators. The interview notes briefly describe the circumstance surrounding the interview(s) session. The tape index includes the name of the narrator, the name of interviewer, the number of tapes, the tape(s) length, and the primary subjects covered. Seventy-nine of the records include transcripts. Transcript length ranges from 8 to 65 pages. Some are single-spaced; others are doubled-spaced. The interviews range from twenty-five minutes to three hours in length. One file, #183, and its accompanying cassette(s) were removed from the collection.
Thirty-two interviewers participated in the project. Typically, the interviews were one-on-one sessions between interviewer and narrator; however, single interviewer and double-narrator situations occurred, as did three group “nostalgia” sessions. Most interviews were prefaced by unrecorded, pre-interview sessions that occurred days before the recorded interview.
Each narrator abstract includes the following information when available: the BNHP interview number; the name of the interviewer; the date of the interview; the place of the interview; the length of the interview; the number of tapes used; the length of the transcript; and the file contents, such as subject index, interview notes, and biography form. The abstracts follow the numerical order of the interview number. However, interview numbers are not consecutive, but site specific. That is to say, any omitted number within a site can be found in another site.
When controversial or outdated terms, especially those referring to race and ethnicity, are mentioned in the abstract, the politically-correct term is used and the term or terms used by the narrator has been placed in parenthetical (“ ”) quotation marks. Specific terms from the interviews and textual uncertainties are often placed in parentheses alone ( ). Maiden names of female narrators are placed in brackets [ ].
Creator
- Adams, Janet (Interviewer, Person)
Repository Details
Part of the H. Furlong Baldwin Library Repository
H. Furlong Baldwin Library
Maryland Center for History and Culture
610 Park Avenue
Baltimore MD 21201 United States
4106853750
specialcollections@mdhistory.org