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2020 Winter Reading Challenge

Wednesday, Jan. 1 – Sunday, March 1

How to Participate

  • Pick up a Winter Reading 2019 bookmark at any Library location.
  • Read 3 books of your choosing.
  • Track your reading on the Winter Reading 2019 bookmark.
  • Return your completed Winter Reading 2019 bookmark to any Library location to claim a prize.

Prizes

  • Kids – Dover activity book
  • Teens – Choice of a blank journal OR the adult prize
  • Adults – Coupon for a free book from any of the ongoing Friend’s of the Arlington Public Library book sales, at Central Library or any of the Branches. Coupon must be redeemed by March 15; when coupon is redeemed, you will be entered into a raffle to win a set of books by our spring 2020 Arlington Reads authors.

Hot Chocolate Party – Saturday, March 14, 2-4 p.m.

Celebrate Winter Reading with hot chocolate, snacks, crafts, door prizes and more!

What Happened to Arlington’s Radio Towers?

From 1913 to 1941, the Arlington Radio Towers dominated the Arlington skyline, visible for miles in either direction. 

Standing at the intersection of Columbia Pike and Courthouse Road, the towers were built by the U.S. Navy Department to house the nation’s first radio station.

Arlington Radio Towers and Alcova Heights neighborhood, date unknown.

Referred to as “Radio Arlington” or “NAA,” the station provided numerous services while it was active, and used multiple transmitters, which operated on both longwave and shortwave frequencies.

The Navy selected Arlington as the site of this historic structure after a survey of numerous potential locations in the Washington, D.C., area. Upon choosing a tract near Fort Myer, 13.4 acres of land was transferred from the War Department to the Navy, and construction began in 1911.

In addition to the towers themselves, two other facilities were built on the site: one to house the transmitters and serve as office space for the superintendent of the Naval Radio Service, and another to house receiving transmitters and quarters for the crew.

The towers came to be known as the “Three Sisters.” The tallest stood at 600 feet tall, with its accompanying “sisters” at 450 feet. This made the 600-foot tower the tallest freestanding radio tower in the world at the time of its construction, as well as the most powerful station (2,643 meters and 113 kHz, respectively). The towers were also the second-largest man-made structure in the world at the time, second to the Eiffel Tower, to which the towers also drew comparisons in their respective designs. In 1923, two 200-foot towers were added to the structure.

The Arlington Radio Towers, ca. 1920.

Designed to facilitate communication between the government and fleet commanders at sea, and as part of a “high-powered chain” of connected radio towers linking Washington, D.C., to the rest of the country, the towers pioneered efforts in advancing wireless communication. In 1915, the president of AT&T made a telephone call from New York City to Mare Island, California, via the Arlington towers – the first transmission of this type. Later that year, the towers made the first Trans-Atlantic voice communication with a call between the Three Sisters and the Eiffel Tower – a distance of more than 3,600 miles. The towers also served as the nation’s timekeeper and weather station, broadcasting daily time signals and weather reports between 1913 and 1936.

The towers initially used a 100-kilowatt Fessenden rotary-spark, which remained in use until July 8, 1923. The Federal Telegraph Company also installed 35-kilowatt Poulsen arc transmitters, which were found to be superior and from then on more widely used. In the 1920s, vacuum tube transmitters mostly replaced the older models both in Arlington and other broadcasting towers installed by the Navy.

Arlington Radio Towers, date unknown. Photo caption reads:
“View of Radio Towers on Court House [sic] Road, from rear of Sommers house, showing how undeveloped the area was.”

In 1917, the towers also played a quiet but important role in the United States’ entry into World War I.

According to the Arlington Historical Society, on the morning of April 6, as Congress decided to enter the U.S. into the war, the Joint Resolution was to be sent to President Woodrow Wilson for signing at 1:00 p.m. that day. Fifteen minutes before the signing was to take place, all stations of the navy system were instructed to cease operations to receive the signal that war was imminent. As the president signed the resolution, a naval commander in the executive office manually signaled an assistant standing in the adjacent State, War, and Navy Building (now the Eisenhower Executive Office Building), who notified the radio station, which transmitted the first declaration of war sent by radio to U.S. warships at sea.

The radio industry was under the control of the federal government during the war, and the Three Sisters towers continued to broadcast time signals, weather reports, and news bulletins throughout wartime. During this period, civilians were banned from possessing and operating radio receivers, but this ban was lifted on April 15, 1919.

The towers were dismantled in 1941, described as a menace to the newly constructed Washington National Airport (which had replaced the Washington-Hoover Airport that same year). The radio transmission carried by the towers was transferred to Annapolis, as were the towers themselves, which were disassembled and reconstructed at the Maryland site.

News article from The Northern Virginia Sun, January 3, 1941.

Transmitting equipment from the Three Sisters also went to Annapolis, while receiving equipment was transferred to a station at Cheltenham. The Navy later brokered a $1 contract for the removal of the remainder of the structure, which was taken for scrap.

Until 1956, the Arlington site served primarily as a link between the different Naval Communication Stations in Washington, D.C. The Navy ordered the disestablishment of NAA on July 1 of that year, followed by various ceremonies championing the legacy of the bygone structures and the station itself. The Annapolis and Cheltenham sites then took on the duties that were, up until then, still being conducted at the Arlington location. Today, the site formerly occupied by the towers is still home to military communications departments, including the Defense Communications Agency.

The Arlington community missed the towers very much, with one writer for the Northern Virginia Sun eulogizing their absence:

“The skyline will seem blank to those accustomed to the sight of the ‘three sisters,’ but, like everything else, the sense of their loss will not last long. Time moves too fast for that.”

A "U.S. Wireless Station Fort Myer, VA" postcard sent in 1916 shows a color photograph of the radio towers.

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? 

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2019 in Review

Thank You for Another Great Year!

We’ve collected some of the best Library moments of 2019 — from storytime with the Washington Nationals, to opening our new Makerspace, to launching the Grab & Go express collection.

Watch our 2019 Year in Review video.

dianekresh

What is it about a library that keeps its patrons coming back for more, year after year?

I can think of a few reasons.

Libraries are judgement free zones — safe spaces that welcome all who enter their doors, regardless of beliefs, gender preferences, country of origin, age, income status, education or appearance.

Libraries increase our understanding of the world we live in. Whether it’s the 26 square miles of our community or the nations beyond our borders, libraries keep us informed and curious.

Libraries help people find their way and those who are alone find connection and companionship.

Libraries celebrate history and culture and honor the personal
stories of those who came before. Susan Orlean, author of “The Library Book,” describes the library as “a gathering pool of narratives and of the people who come to find them. It is where we can glimpse immortality; in the library, we can live forever.”

Library staff do what they do with empathy, generosity and creativity.

Our services are free.

These are a few of our reasons. We bet you can name others.

Thank you for giving Arlington Public Library many reasons to be.

Diane

Scrawled signature of Diane Kresh

Read the Complete 2019 Impact Report (pdf)

2019 Year in Review

What is it about a library that keeps its patrons coming back for more, year after year?

I can think of a few reasons.

dianekresh

Libraries are judgement free zones — safe spaces that welcome all who enter their doors, regardless of beliefs, gender preferences, country of origin, age, income status, education or appearance.

Libraries increase our understanding of the world we live in. Whether it’s the 26 square miles of our community or the nations beyond our borders, libraries keep us informed and curious.

Libraries help people find their way and those who are alone find connection and companionship.

Libraries celebrate history and culture and honor the personal
stories of those who came before. Susan Orlean, author of “The Library Book,” describes the library as “a gathering pool of narratives and of the people who come to find them. It is where we can glimpse immortality; in the library, we can live forever.”

Library staff do what they do with empathy, generosity and creativity.

Our services are free.

These are a few of our reasons. We bet you can name others.

Thank you for giving Arlington Public Library many reasons to be.

Diane

Scrawled signature of Diane Kresh
Read the Complete 2019 Impact Report (pdf)

Updated Holiday Closings

Please Note the Following County Updates

  • December 24, 25 - Arlington County Government offices, courts, Library and facilities will be closed Tuesday, Dec. 24 – Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2019, for Christmas.
  • December 31 - All Library locations will close at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 31
  • January 1 - Arlington County Government offices, courts, Library and facilities will be closed Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2020 for New Year's Day.

We apologize for any invonvenience this may cause.

What Was Most Popular in 2019?

Our Annual List of the 100 Top Titles In Arlington

It's safe to say that Arlington is a reading town - and you have excellent taste!

The 100 most popular titles in 2019 include memoirs, thrillers, history, mythology, dystopia, romance and adventure, as well as magazines, DVDs and a whole lot of Elephant and Piggy!

Which of the Top 100 Have You Read (or Watched)?

The list is organized from left to right, in descending rows: "Educated" had the most checkouts in 2019, "Becoming" had the second most checkouts, etc. Use the genre/format/audience buttons to limit the list to only items within that genre, format or audience.

Please note: As in previous years, the Top 100 of 2019 list only tracks borrowing data for physical materials at all Library locations between January and November.

This Week in 19th Amendment History: Wyoming Day

December 10, 1869

Celebrate the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment with stories about the people and events that led to the passage of women’s suffrage in the United States.

One hundred and fifty years ago this week, Wyoming made a significant – though complicated – stride on the path toward women’s suffrage.

On December 10, 1869, the frontier territory became the first to explicitly grant women the right to vote when governor John Campbell approved “An Act to Grant to the Women of Wyoming Territory the Right of Suffrage and to Hold Office.”

Wyoming Territory

Wyoming had been founded as a territory in July 1868, a time when post Civil War Reconstruction politics determined much of the legislative landscape.

President Grant appointed an almost entirely Republican government in 1869, including the territory’s governor, secretary, and attorney general. These “Radical Republicans” were named after their support for and passage of the 14th Amendment - guaranteeing that former slaves would be citizens and protected equally under the law - and the 15th Amendment - guaranteeing that individuals could not be denied the right to vote based on race or previous slave status.

The question of women's suffrage was also being raised throughout American politics. Suffrage bills in the Washington, Nebraska and Dakota territories had failed in the 1850s and 1860s, as had constitutional amendments that would have granted women the right to vote.

William Bright

The Wyoming bill was introduced by (among others) a saloon keeper turned territorial legislator originally from Alexandria, Virginia. William Bright had fought for the Union Army during the Civil War, and later found his way to Wyoming during the gold rush, where he settled in South Pass.

Bright began his foray into the political scene as a Democrat. Like many of his fellow Democrats after the Civil War, Bright disagreed with the "Radical Republicans" and President Ulysses S. Grant in regards to Reconstruction, and had been known to speak out against them - but he appears not to have opposed the issue to women's suffrage.

Photo of the suffrage bill.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

Despite Wyoming's "Radical Republican" leadership - attorney general Joseph Carey issued an official legal opinion emphasizing the 15th Amendment’s stipulation that no one (man) could be denied the vote on the basis of race - in the September 1869 territorial election only Democrats were elected to the legislature. Wyoming’s delegate to Congress that year was a Democrat.

William Bright was among the Democrats elected to the upper house of the Wyoming legislature (referred to as the Council) and subsequently appointed as president of the Council.

This legislature soon produced a significant series of laws in favor of women’s rights, including a resolution allowing women to sit in on legislative proceedings, a law guaranteeing teachers be paid equally no matter their gender, and a bill ensuring that married women could have property rights independent of their husbands.

“Scene at the Polls in Cheyenne,” 1888.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

The Wyoming Bill

Bright’s suffrage bill followed. Upon introducing the bill, it passed in the Council 6-2. In the House, it faced more pushback. Attempts were made to sabotage the bill through racial prejudice, including by adding an amendment to extend the right to vote to women of color. This amendment was not added to the final bill.

One amendment that did prevail was to raise the voting age for women from 18 to 21. After this addition, the suffrage bill passed 7-4 with one abstention. Governor Campbell signed the bill into law a few days later.

No records were made of the actual proceedings of the legislative session that resulted in the bill’s passage, but newspaper reports reflect a nearly humorous atmosphere accompanying this historic legislation, suggesting that the bill itself may have been perceived as a joke. The Cheyenne-based Wyoming Tribune reported that “amid the greatest hilarity, and after the presentation of various funny amendments and in the full expectation of a gubernatorial veto, an act was passed enfranchising the women of Wyoming.”

Mrs. Esther Morris, the 1st woman judge in Wyoming Territory.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

Getting the Vote for Women

Though the exact details of what other events directly precipitated the suffrage law are unclear, one frequently-referenced 1926 account credits South Pass resident Esther Hobart Morris as its catalyst.

Morris purportedly hosted a tea party as a forum to present her case for women’s suffrage to legislators, allegedly including Bright. While Morris’s actual role in the bill has been contested, it is notable that following the 1869 passage of the suffrage law, she became the first female justice of the peace in the United States (taking over after her predecessor resigned in protest of the new law).

In September 1870, Wyoming women formally voted in their first election and the territory’s second. On September 6, sixty-nine-year-old Louisa Swain of Laramie, Wyoming, became the first woman in the country to democratically cast a vote. About 300 of the total 600 eligible women voted, and many selected Republicans on their ballots. A Republican took over the position as delegate to Congress, and by 1871 a swath of Republicans broke into the previously Democrat-dominated legislature.

However, all was not smooth sailing in this new era: the newly elected legislature soon passed a bill to repeal the 1869 law, which was vetoed by Governor Campbell, whose veto was then overridden by a two-thirds vote in the House. Once it reached the Council, the bill then failed by one vote, and the suffrage law stood, never to be challenged again.

Why Women's Suffrage?

Various theories have been proposed as to the motivations behind passage of the bill, which at the time was a radical decision.

Was suffrage a publicity stunt designed to bring more settlers (and female settlers in particular) to the territory? In 1869 Wyoming was comprised of only about 6,000 recorded adult men and 1,000 women. It was also the most recently designated territory, and quite remote.

Was the bill a political power move to keep the Democrats in territorial power? Added to any possible political maneuvering was the potential for a reactionary veto by the Republican governor - had that happened, it would have been an embarrassing blow to Campbell and a boon to the Democrats.

Was the bill a sign of the schism growing between the abolitionists/Reconstructionists and the suffragists? Some of the Wyoming legislators argued that white women should have the vote instead of the African-Americans enfranchised under the 15th Amendment, or that they should be prioritized in the steps toward universal suffrage. The divide between those in support of the 15th Amendment and those against it would prove to be significant in the suffrage movement, with famous suffragists such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony opposing the enfranchisement of African-American men. This divide came to define much of the suffrage movement itself.

The Equality State

Despite the questionable motives surrounding this landmark day, Wyoming – which was later nicknamed “the Equality State” – continued its progressive legislative streak, and in 1889 approved the country’s first state constitution granting full voting rights to women.

In 1924, the state garnered another national first when Nellie Tayloe Ross was elected the first female governor in the United States.

2020 marks the centennial of women’s suffrage in the United States. 



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