Nettie Weiss Oral History and Family Papers

 

1940-2018

 

SCRC 379

 

Weiss, Nettie

 

0.1 linear feet (1 folder) + 0.14 GB

 

Special Collections Research Center, Temple University Libraries

 

Materials in English.

 

 

 

Nettie Dash Levitt Weiss was born in Philadelphia on September 26, 1916, to Russian immigrants from Berdichev, a city in the Zhytomyr Oblast in northern Ukraine. She graduated from Simon Gratz High School at the age of 15. Following graduation, Nettie worked as a laboratory technician for several years for a doctor at Lankenau Hospital. In 1940, she married Abraham (Al) Levitt with whom she had four sons—Jerry, Harvey, Joel, and Richard. Al died March 11, 1962. In 1977, Nettie married Harold Weiss, a retired military dentist. Harold died in 2013.

 

The Nettie Weiss Oral History and Family Papers consist of five oral history audio files, four oral history transcripts, two 1940 letters from Frances Dash to Nettie and Al Levitt, and one 1945 letter from Lt. Samuel Levitt written aboard the USCGC Northland detailing his experiences sailing in the North Atlantic and addressed to Jerry, Harvey, and other Levitt family children. The collection also includes a short biographical sketch and assorted family photographs of Nettie, her first husband Al and second husband Harold, her four sons, parents, and extended family members. The four oral history interviews were conducted between December 2014 and March 2015 by Julie Meranze Levitt, daughter-in-law of Nettie Weiss. The interviews cover topics including but not limited to descriptions of the homes Nettie grew up in and lived in North and Northeast Philadelphia, her father’s business, schooling, the birth of her sister Frances in 1923, work as a laboratory technician, courtship and marriage to her first husband and his women’s clothing manufacturing business, and social life within the family and with friends. The oral history transcripts contain annotations added by the interviewer which are indicated by parentheses in the text. 

 

 

A record for this collection is available in Temple University’s online library catalog: 

 

Collection is open for research.

 

This collection may be housed off-site at the Library Depository, and require up to two business days to retrieve. Please review the finding aid and be prepared to identify specific materials to be retrieved. Contact the Special Collections Research Center in advance of your visit, so that materials may be relocated to the reading room for research. 

 

Certain digital files may be inaccessible. Please contact the Special Collections Research Center for more information.

 

The Nettie Weiss Oral History and Family Papers are the physical property of the Special Collections Research Center, Temple University Libraries. The creator has assigned her rights to the oral history to Temple University Libraries.  Other creators’ intellectual property rights, including copyright, belong to them or their legal heirs and assigns. Researchers are responsible for determining the identity of rights holders and obtaining their permission for publication and for other purposes where stated.  

 

[Description and date of item], [Box/folder number], Nettie Weiss Oral History and Family Papers, SCRC 379, Special Collections Research Center, Temple University Libraries, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 

 

 

Donated by Julie Meranze Levitt in July 2018. 

 

Collection processed and finding aid prepared in July 2018 by Jessica M. Lydon, Associate Archivist. 

 

 

 

The following headings have been used to index the description of this collection in Temple University’s electronic catalog:

 

Dash, Frances

Levitt, Abraham (Al)

Weiss, Nettie Dash Levitt, 1916-

Levitt, Samuel

 

Jewish families -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia

Jewish women

 

Philadelphia (Pa.)

 

Born digital

Correspondence

Financial records

Oral histories

Photographs

Sound recordings