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The Great Northern Virginia Elephant Hunt

The year was 1906. The place, Northern Virginia. If you were standing outside on August 21, you might have seen four enormous grey animals with extremely long noses gallop past, destroying buildings and crops between Arlington and Fairfax County. This might also have been your first sighting of an elephant on the loose.

“Barlow’s Elephants” was an animal act featured at the Luna Park amusement park, in Arlington. The four elephants, Annie, Jennie, Queenie, and Tommie, were part of a very popular traveling show that arrived at Luna Park on August 20, 1906.

Postcard of Shoot the Shutes water amusement at Luna Park. Hand written text might read: "Hello yourself. Am cooking alive. Burning love to all"

The next day, the four elephants escaped from their quarters. Deciding to take matters in their own trunks, they began a tour the local area. Annie was corralled quickly before she could make a full escape, but Jennie, Queenie, and Tommie remained at large for more than a week.

Peter Barlow, head trainer of “Barlow’s Elephants,” could not catch up with the elephant herd after capturing Annie. So he posted a reward of $500 for the capture of any of the runaways. This inspired the Washington Post to write a short poem in their honor:

“Four little elephants, chained in a row,
They break loose and away they go;
Keepers call it serious “Biz,”
And pachyderm price has surely “Riz.”

A few locals attempted to round up the elephants on their own, but were unsuccessful.

Barlow and his crew eventually captured Tommie in Fairfax County, and after eight days, and with help, all four elephants were finally rounded up. The elephants were then loaded on a freight train at Burke Station, and returned safely to Coney Island.

Although we unfortunately have no photographs of Annie, Jennie, Queenie or Tommie, we do have images of Luna Park (seen above).

Arlington's Luna Park opened in the summer of 1906 to much fanfare and served as a fun escape for local adults and children for almost a decade. The park stretched along Four Mile Run on South Glebe Road and South Eads Street, covering nearly forty acres (the County’s water pollution plant now occupies this land). Although most of this land was devoted to picnic and playground areas, ten-acres were dedicated to amusement rides, a dance hall, a roller rink, a movie theater, and of course, a space for elephant and other circus animal acts.

To see more items relating to the elephant hunt, visit the Center for Local History on the first floor of the Central Library.

Do you have a question about this story, or a personal experience to share?

Use this form to send a message to the Center for Local History.

Grab & Go Express Book Collection

Storytime Break: August 25 – September 7

We Hope You've Had a Great Summer!

Now that Summer Reading is almost over, the Youth Services librarians are going to take a short break to get ready for our fall Storytime schedule.

They're gathering books, practicing their songs and rhymes, and preparing crafts to help your little ones learn about sounds, words and reading!

Need a good story to share with your child?

Browse our picture book lists
Check out a Family Reading Kit, in one of 11 non-English language spoken by Arlington families
Check out a Storytime Kit

Fall Storytimes start Sunday, Sept. 8.

“If You Don’t Vote, You Don’t Count”

Can you imagine having to pay a tax for the three previous years before you could cast your vote in an election? Or registering to vote for a federal election, and then discovering that doing so had not registered you to vote in a local election?

Poll taxes and dual registrations are two systems that were used in Virginia between 1876 and 1966 in order to restrict who had access to voting.

1951 Flyer reminding voters to pay their 1951 Pol Tax

1951 flyer telling Arlington residents how to pay their poll tax in order to vote in the upcoming election

In 1876, after the Fifteenth Amendment granted African-Americans the right to vote, Virginia passed a poll tax to restrict African-American men from voting. Although this law was repealed in 1882, in 1901 the Virginia General Assembly called for a new constitution with the explicit purpose to secure the right of suffrage of the state's white men, and to take away the right to vote from anyone in the state who wasn't white.
(Read the Report of the proceedings and debates of the Constitutional Convention, state of Virginia : held in the city of Richmond June 12, 1901, to June 26, 1902)

The new constitution, which passed in 1902, reinstated the poll tax. This required voters to pay a tax of $1.50 six months prior to an election for each of the three years preceding an election. This disenfranchised approximately 90% of the black men and, counter to the intentions of those who had drafted the new constitution, nearly 50% of the white men who had previously been registered to vote in Virginia. The 1902 constitution also created an administrative structure that was difficult for any average citizen to navigate, further disenfranchising many poor men.

(American history timeline note: the 19th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution was ratified in 1920, prohibiting the states and the federal government from denying the right to vote to citizens of the United States on the basis of sex.)

While the 24th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution (ratified in 1964) outlawed poll taxes in federal elections, it did not prevent states like Virginia from continuing to require poll taxes for state and local elections. At the time five states—Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, Texas, and Virginia—retained poll taxes.

Virginia maintained poll taxes for state and local elections until 1966 when the Supreme Court ruled in Harper v. Virginia State Board of Elections that poll taxes were unconstitutional. Four years later, the Virginia Constitution of 1971 explicitly forbid the Virginia General Assembly from requiring poll taxes as a prerequisite to voting.

Between 1964 and 1966, when Virginians were required to pay poll taxes to vote in state and local elections but not in federal elections, Virginia instituted the dual registration system. Put in place when ratification of the 24th Amendment was all but certain, the dual registration system automatically extended federal registration to those who registered for state and local elections, but it did not automatically extend state and local registration to those who registered for federal elections. Since registering to vote and paying the poll tax were separate actions, this system disproportionately hurt those who only registered for federal elections.

These flyers were created in the 1950s by the local NAACP, and the Hoffman-Boston and Langston PTAs. They were designed to encourage Arlington's African-American residents to pay their poll taxes in order to vote in upcoming elections, frequently using a variation of the phrase, "If you don't vote in Arlington, you don't count in Arlington."

1954 Poll Tax Flyer from NAACP and Hoffman Boston PTA

1954 flyer on how to pay your poll tax in order to vote in upcoming School Board, County and State elections, created by the NAACP and Hoffman Boston and Langston PTAs. View item information on ProjectDAPS.

1958 flyer on the 10 points to learn in order to become a qualified voter. View item information in ProjectDAPS.

1950s NAACP Virginia Poll Tax Flyer, page 1

Poll Tax Month: a 1956 Virginia Poll Tax Flyer created by the NAACP, explaining what the poll tax was and how it related to being able to vote in both local and federal elections. View item information in ProjectDAPS.

Portia Haskins of Arlington filed suit against the Virginia Board of Elections and the Arlington County general registrar after she was required to re-register to vote in the November 1965 election despite paying her poll taxes in February and registering for federal elections the previous year.

On April 1, 1966, in Portia A. Haskins v. Levin Nock Davis et al. a Federal District Court ruled in favor of Haskins arguing that “[t]he provisions of Virginia’s dual voter registration…which treat persons who are registered only for federal elections differently from persons registered for all elections violate the equal protection laws of the 14th Amendment.”

To see more items relating to the poll tax, visit the Center for Local History's ProjectDAPS website, or visit the Center for Local History on the first floor of the Central Library.

Do you have a question about this story, or a personal experience to share?

Use this form to send a message to the Center for Local History.

Complete Summer Reading By September 1

Have You Read for 25 days?

Join the 5,406 people who have already completed Summer Reading this year.

Visit the Library to claim your Summer Reading prize!

Photo of an open book left on the sand in the windy beach on the coast of Sardinia, Italy, Europe

Not done reading?

Sunday, Sept. 1 is the last day to turn in your reading log and complete Summer Reading.

Washington Nationals Tickets

If you have already completed Summer Reading and picked up the voucher for your 2 tickets to a Washington Nationals game, be sure to go online to redeem them as soon as possible.

The last Washington Nationals game is on Sunday, Sept. 1.

Vouchers can be redeemed for tickets to the following games based on availability:

Washington Nationals Game Schedule

Washington Nationals ticket vouchers have no cash value, are not valid for resale, and can not be combined with any other offers.

Pencil Me In: Waneta’s Dance Card

Have you ever “penciled someone in” for coffee, or said “my dance card is full” when you're busy?

Both sayings refer back to the historic dance cards used at formal dances in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

dance card decorated with daffodils and a spade

dance card decorated with a drawing of a bellboy carrying a flower box

These beautifully decorated dance cards, from Waneta Blue’s time at the University of Virginia during the 1920s, were not only a practical way to keep track of social engagements and dance partners, but also a small keepsake from formal dances and parties.

Dance cards became popular at balls and social events in Europe and the United States during the 1800s and remained common at dances planned for students until the 1940s.

At a dance, young men wrote their names just once in the card of each of the young women with whom they wanted to dance. Dance cards often looked like a booklet with decorative cover, and included the order of dances, including the music and composers.

Card reading "You are player no. 10" and then instructions for where to sit and how to find your partner

Waneta Blue's dance card, with no names filled in

As you’ve probably noticed, it was completely up to the men to decide to put their names on a woman’s dance card, and to initiate the dancing. While Waneta Blue's card doesn’t reveal any of the names of her dance partners, her evening appears to have also included at least one table game with a randomly assigned partner.

One interesting note: judging by the records in our collection, Waneta Blue appears to have experimented at times with spelling her first name with an "i" instead of an "e." An example of this can be seen at the bottom of her dance card.

The items photographed here are from our Community Archives collection, Records of the Blue Family. The collection also includes greeting cards to members of the family, school records of the Blue sisters, and more materials from Waneta Blue’s years at the University of Virginia in the 1920’s.

To learn more, visit the Center for Local History on the first floor of the Central Library.

Do you have a question about this story, or a personal experience to share?

Use this form to send a message to the Center for Local History.

Mac Cosgrove-Davies: Photographs

Pictorialist Arlington and Beyond

On exhibit at the Westover Branch Library, June 18 – August 20, 2019.

Artist statement:

Although there is no standard definition of ‘Pictorialism,’ it generally refers to a style in which the photographer has manipulated what would otherwise be a straightforward photograph as a means of "creating" an image rather than simply recording it. Here I have included photographic prints made with ‘pictorialist’ photo processes such as gum bichromate, cyanotype, oil printing, and carbon printing. All of these are ‘hands-on’ printing methods using readily available materials and equipment. They do not require a darkroom, and can be practiced almost anywhere. Subjects are largely but not exclusively Arlington, VA and the DC area.

Please also have a look at the antique and hand-made cameras in the front display cases. The photos shown here were taken with these cameras or other similar ones in my collection.

The frames for these photographs are made with repurposed floorboards from a neighborhood house recently torn down. Glass is from old storm windows.

About the artist:

Mac Cosgrove-Davies is a self-taught photographer who since 1978 has been practicing historic photographic processes including gum bichromate, cyanotype, VanDyke, palladium, oil printing, and carbon printing. Mac’s images are inspired by his extensive travel to developing countries as well as everyday life in Arlington, VA and elsewhere. Using antique and hand-made film cameras in various large & panoramic formats he seeks to match the image to the beauty and elegance of the selected photographic process.

In addition to building the occasional camera, printing frame, picture frame, or other photographic gadget, he also creates books, boxes, and presentation portfolios for his prints. He is represented in various collections such as the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Library of Congress, Maier Museum, and Lehigh University Art Galleries. Mac teaches these printing methods at PhotoWorks in Glen Echo Park.

Additional photographs may be seen by appointment. Contact gummist@gmail.com.

Want to buy something you see on our walls?
Artists contribute 20% of sales made during their exhibit to the Friends of the Arlington County Public Library, to help support Library programming.

Dog Days with the Allwine Children

Arlingtonians have always loved dogs...

Two children and a dog cart, date unknown, after 1912

The inscription on this photo reads: "V.A., A.A., Taft" - Vivian Allwine, --- Allwine (her brother, first name unknown), and Taft the dog.

In the early part of the 1900s, on the site that later became Reagan National Airport, Vivian Allwine Ford grew up on a farm named Abingdon Plantation.

She was born at home, on December 31, 1912, and lived there with her mother, father, and six brothers until 1922. The Allwine family grew corn, tomatoes, apples, and peppers, and sold their produce in Washington, DC. They also raised animals including donkeys, chickens and turkeys.

But as these photos show the Allwine family children were particularly fond of their four-legged best friends.

Although the dogs in the photos are not identified by breed, they appear to be mixed herding and hunting dogs – maybe a collie and a beagle mix - which would have made them well suited for farm work as well as playing with rambunctious children. Based on the inscription on the back of the first photo, one of the dogs appears to have been named "Taft," possibly after President William Howard Taft who held office from 1909-1913.

In an oral history conducted in 2005, when she was 92, Vivian Allwine Ford recalled life on Abingdon Plantation in the 1920’s. Her father managed the brickyard on the property and her mother, Jeanette, opened a small grocery store on 23rd Street in Arlington.

The original Abingdon Plantation was once the home of George Washington’s stepson, John Parke Custis. Custis bought the land in 1778 in order to raise his family near Washington’s home at Mt. Vernon, as well as the family home of his wife Eleanor Calvert, in Mt. Airy, Maryland.

The remains of the plantation are still visible today near the airport.

To learn more about Arlington's history, visit the Center for Local History on the first floor of the Central Library.

Do you have a question about this story, or a personal experience to share?

Use this form to send a message to the Center for Local History.

Thrills and Chills at Arlington Beach

A day at the beach sounds relaxing, but visitors to Arlington Amusement Beach in the 1920s sometimes got more thrills - and even chills - than anticipated…

Located along the Potomac River near present-day Long Bridge Park from 1923-1929, Arlington Amusement Beach was also quite close to a local aviation field.

photo of a biplane at Washington Airport, 1920s

A biplane at Washington Airport, 1920s (exact date unknown)

black and white aerial photo showing Hoover field, the beach, and Washington airport, 1926

Aerial view of Hoover field, the Arlington Amusement Beach, and Washington airport, 1926.

The famous aviator Charles Lindbergh didn’t make his first historic trans-Atlantic flight until 1927, so many beach-goers were as fascinated by the spectacle of low flying planes practicing takeoffs and landings at National Aviation Field - and later Hoover Field and Washington Airport - as they were interested in a day on the water.

The first photo, taken in the late 1920s, shows a plane at Washington Airport. The second photo, taken in 1926, shows an aerial view of Hoover field, the Arlington Amusement Beach, and Washington airport.

Arlington Branch Amusement Park cover of flyer

Arlington Beach pamphlet, cover and page 4

But airplane watching wasn’t always fun. Beach-goers occasionally witnessed plane crashes and accidents, some even fatal.

On June 17, 1923, 2,000 people watched as Clarendon resident Clarence A. Rossignol fell to his death attempting to jump from airplanes to entertain the beach crowd. He was reportedly hoping that by successfully completing this stunt he would sign a contract with Arlington Amusement Beach to perform regularly.

In another accident, due to a heavy tailwind, a two-passenger plane crashed into the Potomac. Luckily both the pilot and his passenger—a tourist seeking the “thrill of a ride in an airplane”—survived.

To learn more visit the Center for Local History on the first floor of the Central Library.

Do you have a question about this story, or a personal experience to share?

Use this form to send a message to the Center for Local History.

Oral History: Introducing New Breads to Arlington

Interview with Carla and Wolfgang Buchler of Heidelberg Pastry Shoppe

Heidelberg Bakery is a local landmark in Arlington. Like the county itself, the restaurants and bakeries throughout the area are incredibly diverse and delicious.

In this oral history clip, Carla and Wolfgang Buchler, owners of the Heidelberg Pastry Shoppe, discuss the lack of diversity in breads that Wolfgang found in America when he first came to the U.S. in the 1970’s—and how tastes have changed, partly due to Heidelberg Pastry Shoppe’s delicious treats.

NARRATOR 1: Wolfgang Buchler
NARRATOR 2: Carla Buchler
INTERVIEWER: Andrew Ausel
DATE: March 8, 2017

Transcript:

WB: Well, for me, I didn’t have—like, in America you couldn’t find a good bread. Okay? That was my—you could find some pastries, but you couldn’t find any good bread around. So at the beginning, they actually gave me a very rough time when I baked bread like we baked in Germany. They brought it back, as if it was stale, but it was just normal, so we had to adjust some of our baking—

CB: In the 70’s people were—I guess exotic bread was French bread. So switching over to rye breads—

WB: Rye breads.

CB: Hearty breads. Kind of heavier things.

WB: Seeded breads, and everything. Yeah.

CB: Now it’s different, people are exposed to—I think they are more international with their tastes. In the 70’s it was a little different.

WB: And our white bread was not like in America. White bread, we tuck under and tuck over and it comes back up again. (Laughs). It was very different, but that difference is what established our name and our breads and our good products.

AA: Did you find that people were sort of—they had a hard time adjusting to your style of bread? Or was it like “Oh my Gosh! Why have I not been eating this?”

WB: I think it’s just the style. A lot of people just had never been used to eating a healthy bread.

You can find Carla and Wolfgang Buchler's interview in its entirety in the Center for Local History - VA 975.5295 A7243oh ser. 13 no. 6. Photo: RG216-0491, Eleanor Schlesinger Photograph Collection.

The goal of the Arlington Voices project is to showcase the Center for Local History’s oral history collection in a publicly accessible and shareable way.

What is the oral history collection?

Oral history is a popular method of research used for understanding historical events, actors, and movements from the point of view of people’s personal experiences.

The Arlington Public Library began collecting oral histories of long-time residents in the 1970s, and since then the scope of the collection has expanded to capture the diverse voices of Arlington’s community. In 2016, staff members and volunteers recorded many additional hours of interviews, building the collection to 575 cataloged oral histories.

To browse our list of narrators indexed by interview subject, check out our community archive. To read a full transcript of an interview, visit the Center for Local History located at Central Library.

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