Born around 1910, these seniors were little kids during World War I, teenagers in the booming but dry 1920s, and then had the misfortune to earn their degrees during the worst economic climate in the history of the nation (hmm, sound familiar?).
A look through their yearbook, The Album, reveals that they were mostly from the New York area (NYU was a commuter school back then) and of Jewish, Italian, and Irish backgrounds.
Their commencement address, delivered at the Bronx campus (NYU’s main campus at the time) also strikes a familiar note. School chancellor Ellsworth Brown, cautioned students about “bow[ing] down in the worship of the dollar”:
“Our economic safeguard . . . is to be found in new standards of life, in a regenerated scale of values and in the spiritual aspirations of mankind,” the chancellor told them.
A few could still be alive today. I hope they had good lives.
Tags: Chancellor Ellsworth Brown, New York University class of 1932, NYU class of 1932, NYU Greenwich Village, NYU University Heights, NYU yearbook, old college yearbooks, old New York City school yearbooks
Ephemeral New York 
May 21, 2012 at 1:55 pm |
My Dad, Milton Stuchiner, was an NYU, Washington Square College grad of 1932. Just found his school “key” — in the shape of the Washington Square arch!
Is the entire graduating class on line somewhere?
May 21, 2012 at 2:05 pm |
The yearbook is not online as far as I know; I have a copy. I’ll look for your dad’s name tonight!
May 21, 2012 at 2:15 pm |
Thanks wildnewyork!