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Levy, Lester, 1979 August 19

 File
Identifier: OH 8297.132

Abstract

The Levy interview provides extensive information on the history of the Park Heights area from the 1920’s to the 1950’s (Mt. Washington 1925-1932). The narrator also assesses the differences between orthodox and reform Judaism. There is also much information about the Jewish Community Center and the Association of Jewish Charities.

Dates

  • 1979 August 19

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

The collection is open for research use.

Biographical / Historical

Lester Levy was born in Philadelphia, PA on October 22, 1896 to a Jewish-American mother and a British immigrant father also of the Jewish faith. In 1918, the narrator attended Johns Hopkins University and worked as a hat manufacturer from 1919-1959. He married Eleanor Kohn at the Hotel Belvedere on October 18, 1922. The couple had three children. At the time of the interview, Levy had been working as a writer and lecturer since 1959.

Extent

60 Minutes

Language of Materials

From the Collection: English

Existence and Location of Originals

Original format: 2 compact cassettes

Physical Description

Biography form, interview notes, tape index, & transcript : 22 pages

Scope and Contents

From the Collection:

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

Repository Details

Part of the H. Furlong Baldwin Library Repository

Contact:
H. Furlong Baldwin Library
Maryland Center for History and Culture
610 Park Avenue
Baltimore MD 21201 United States
4106853750