Icons: Anne Moses

Anne Moses (c. 1908 - unknown) was part of the unique queer community in Brooklyn’s waterfront during the second World War. 

We're celebrating Pride Month with Icons: supreme queens of queer culture. Some are household names... others are a little more behind the scenes. All of them have defied social norms and influenced generations of people to be unapologetically themselves.

History classes can get a bad rap, and sometimes for good reason. When we were students, we couldn’t help wondering... where were all the ladies at? Why were so many incredible stories missing from the typical curriculum? Enter, Womanica. On this Wonder Media Network podcast we explore the lives of inspiring women in history you may not know about, but definitely should.

Every weekday, listeners explore the trials, tragedies, and triumphs of groundbreaking women throughout history who have dramatically shaped the world around us. In each 5 minute episode, we’ll dive into the story behind one woman listeners may or may not know–but definitely should. These diverse women from across space and time are grouped into easily accessible and engaging monthly themes like Educators, Villains, Indigenous Storytellers, Activists, and many more.  Womanica is hosted by WMN co-founder and award-winning journalist Jenny Kaplan. The bite-sized episodes pack painstakingly researched content into fun, entertaining, and addictive daily adventures. 

Womanica was created by Liz Kaplan and Jenny Kaplan, executive produced by Jenny Kaplan, and produced by Liz Smith, Grace Lynch, Maddy Foley, Brittany Martinez, Edie Allard, Lindsey Kratochwill, Adesuwa Agbonile, Carmen Borca-Carrillo, Taylor Williamson, Ale Tejeda, Sara Schleede, and Abbey Delk. Special thanks to Shira Atkins. 

Original theme music composed by Miles Moran.

Follow Wonder Media Network:

• Website
• Instagram
• Twitter

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Hello. For Wonder Media Network. I'm Jenny Kaplan and this
is Wamanica. We're celebrating Pride Month with icons supreme queens
of queer culture. Some are household names, others a little
more behind the scenes. All have defied social norms and
influenced generations of people to be unapologetically themselves. Today, we're

(00:26):
visiting Brooklyn's waterfront during the Second World War. There aren't
many accounts of Brooklyn's queer history in the early twentieth century,
but one unique story has survived. Let's talk about Anne Moses.
World War II was under way. As men were being
shipped off to fight the war abroad, a quieter but

(00:47):
no less important change was happening on the home front.
At the time, women were generally limited to their domestic
lives and excluded from the workforce. But as men were
sent overseas, an industrial city like Brooklyn, New York, couldn't
afford to lose workers. Suddenly it was not only acceptable
but a smart business decision to hire women to remedy

(01:08):
the labor shortage. In the summer of nineteen forty one,
all government agencies were encouraged to hire women to fill
vacancies Shortly after, the Brooklyn Navy Yard invited women to apply,
and twenty thousand women did. On October sixth, nineteen forty two,

(01:29):
the Todd Shipyard, a commercial shipyard in the coastal Brooklyn
neighborhood of RedHook, put its first twelve women to work.
Among them was Anne Moses. Anne was thirty four years
old at the time and had lived in Brooklyn her
whole life. She came from a large family with seven
sisters and eight brothers. Her father had immigrated from Romania

(01:52):
and worked as a tinsmith. Anne was the only child
who showed any interest in her father's work and skills.
He taught her how to solder, and she read his
books and taught herself other metalworking techniques. As the story goes,
when Anne was applying for the job at the Navy Yard,

(02:12):
the women in the room were asked if anyone knew
how to weld. Anne's hand shot up. Now she didn't
actually know how to weld, but she figured she would learn.
She was hired on the spot. Anne worked for the
next one hundred days without a day off. During that time,
she did learn how to weld, and even made repairs

(02:34):
to huge aircraft carriers. She worked long hours, not minding
the sweat or dirt of the job. Working on the
waterfront was far from utopic, but it offered working class
women sudden and surprising freedoms, especially for women like Anne,
who was queer and unmarried. It created a space outside

(02:55):
of the home to be with other women without the
pressure to conform to typical feminine standards of time. Most
of what we know about Anne's life comes from a
scrap book she left behind. In almost all of the
photos of Anne, she's looking directly at the camera with
a huge, bright smile. She seems sporty and playful. There

(03:17):
are photos of her fishing, playing basketball, and doing archery.
In one, she's standing on top of a giant pile
of chopped wood in a summer outfit, axe in hand.
Some are posed, Others capture people in the act of reading, fighting,
or swinging on a swing. Seen altogether, the photos leave

(03:39):
the impression that she enjoyed keeping a record of joy
and community throughout her life, especially during the years Anne
worked at the Todd Shipyard. There are newspaper clippings announcing
the cohort of women who first worked there, and later
the anniversary of their first year, or even creative jingles

(04:01):
pasted on the pages, like work songs that describe the
days of these women. We make it on the dot,
we rush out to the lot. It's dark as pitch.
We don't know which it's day or night. We've got Anne.
Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way. Oh what
fun it is to work outdoors on a winter's day.

(04:22):
There are also many photos of other butch women from
a summer vacation in Spring Valley, New York. In one,
Anne is by the river and kneeling over the lap
of a woman who's apparently about to playfully spank her.
In another, Anna's kneeling seemingly proposing to the other woman.
The book When Brooklyn Was Queer by Hugh Ryan, places

(04:43):
Anne's story and the photos of her life in context
as another example in a long history of how the
Waterfront nurtured female relationships and the queer community. Anne worked
at the Todd Shipyard until the end of the war.
She lived at home with her mother until she was
fifty four years old, as was typical for unmarried women
to do. She later moved to Florida with a girlfriend.

(05:09):
We don't know anything else beyond that. Her scrap book,
which was donated to the Center for Brooklyn History by
Anne's nephew, Michael Levine, is one of the only traces
left of this rich cultural pocket of Brooklyn history. All month,
we're celebrating Pride with icons. For more information, find us

(05:30):
on Facebook and Instagram at Womanica Podcast special thanks to
Liz Kaplan, my favorite sister and co creator. Talk to
you tomorrow.