Saturday, March 23 – Saturday, Oct. 12
View a list of tools, the rules of use, and our registration and waiver forms on the Library website.
Over 250 people came together to celebrate Winter Reading on Saturday, March 9.
We made crafts and played games, ate snacks and drank hot chocolate -and everyone got a mug to take home!
How many people read together this winter?
Congratulations to everyone who read all those books - you did a great job!
The winner of the Winter Reading grand prize is Paul Cassidy.
The Friends of the Arlington Public Library hold a massive used book sale each spring and fall in the Central Library parking garage.
This sale is shaping up to be one of their biggest ever, with over 200,00 items including books for all ages and interests, magazines, DVDs, CDs and LPs, as well as games and puzzles.
Learn more about the Friends of the Library Fall Book Sale on the Library calendar.
Interested in volunteering? Contact volunteer@arlintonlibraryfriends.org.
The mission of The Friends of the Arlington Public Library is to encourage and assist the Arlington County Public Library in providing the highest quality possible library services and collections to the patrons of The Library and to generally promote and encourage public library systems.
March is Women’s History Month
Explore something new by a woman who was recently nominated for or won the National Book Award.
The mission of the National Book Award is “to celebrate the best literature in America, expand its audience, and ensure that books have a prominent place in American culture.”
On January 26, 1938, Zitkála-Šá, life-long advocate for Native American rights and a resident of 261 North Barton Street in Lyon Park, died at age 61. She was buried under the name Gertrude Simmons Bonnin, in Arlington National Cemetery.
Image of Zitkála-Šá ca. 1921, courtesy of the Library of Congress
A nationally recognized Native American author and activist, Zitkála-Šá was a vocal proponent for citizenship rights for Native Americans. Born in South Dakota into a Yankton Dakota Sioux family, she thrived on the Yankton Indian Reservation until Quaker missionaries recruited some of the reservation’s children to attend a Quaker manual labor school where she was given the Christian name Gertrude Simmons. Although she enjoyed learning to read and write, she experienced first-hand the damage of having her heritage stripped away. Feeling torn between her life on the reservation and her forced assimilation into white mainstream culture, Zitkála-Šá pursued higher education and distinguished herself as a public speaker on social and political issues.
“Folded hands lie in my lap, for the time forgot. My heart and I lie small upon the earth like a grain of throbbing sand. Drifting clouds and tinkling waters, together with the warmth of a genial summer day, bespeak with eloquence the loving Mystery round about us.”
"Why I Am A Pagan," Atlantic Monthly, Volume 90, 1902
Her largely autobiographical work on indigenous life was published by the Atlantic Monthly and Harper’s Monthly, including “Impressions of an Indian Childhood” and “The Trial Path” among many more. She collected tribal stories and legends into collections, and authored poems examining the intersection of nature, Native American life, and mainstream white American life.
In 1910, she began a collaboration with composer William F. Hanson, and the subsequent “The Sun Dance Opera” was the first opera authored by a Native American (under the name Gertrude Simmons).
“It was next to impossible to leave the iron routine after the civilizing machine had once begun its day's buzzing; and as it was inbred in me to suffer in silence rather than to appeal to the ears of one whose open eyes could not see my pain, I have many times trudged in the day's harness heavy-footed, like a dumb sick brute.”
"The School Days of an Indian Girl," Atlantic Monthly, Volume 85, 1900
As a member of the Society of American Indians, Gertrude Simmons (the name she used in records and public affairs) lectured nationally and lobbied for citizenship rights for Native Americans who were not naturalized U.S. citizens by birth but could apply through pathways such as military service, renouncing tribal affiliations, or accepting land allotments. As a previous clerk for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, she criticized the bureau for its mistreatment of Indigenous children placed in national education systems that forced assimilation and Christian values.
In 1916, her husband, Captain Raymond Talefase Bonnin (also of Yankton descent), lost his position at the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Utah and they moved to Washington D.C. where, as editor of the Society of American Indian’s publication American Indian Magazine, Gertrude Simmons Bonnin wrote about and exhibited treatises on many controversial issues. In 1923, she co-authored “Oklahoma’s Poor Rich Indians: An Orgy of Graft and Exploitation of the Five Civilized Tribe, Legalized Robbery” which discussed theft and murder by corporations seeking access to Native American-owned oil-rich lands. The article is credited with influencing the development of the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, which returned government and land management to Native Americans.
On November 3, 1925, Gertrude and Raymond Bonnin purchased the stone bungalow at 261 North Barton Street in Arlington. from the first owners, Loyd and Bernice Claire. The Claires had built the house only one year earlier, having bought it from the well-known Lyon & Fitch real estate development. The Lyon & Fitch real estate team sold the Lyon Park subdivision properties with deed restrictions and covenants, including one preventing the property from being sold or rented to non-whites for a period of 99 years. The census recognized people of Native American ancestry as white and therefore the Bonnins were not prevented from purchasing the property.
In 1924, the Indian Citizenship Act granted citizenship to all Native Americans, but did not automatically afford voting rights. In response, Gertrude Simmons Bonnin co-founded and presided over the National Council of American Indians to unify First Nations in the movement to gain voting rights, healthcare, legal standing, and land rights. She also created the Indian Welfare Committee of the General Federation of Women’s Clubs, speaking often in Washington, Arlington, and Fairfax.
Gertrude Simmons Bonnin spent the remainder of her life in Arlington as president of the Council of American Indians, speaking and writing about the continuing political and social mistreatment of Native Americans. After her death, her husband continued to live in their home until his death in 1942 when the property was left in trust to their grandchildren.
United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Fifteenth Census of the United States, 1930. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1930. T626, 2,667 rolls.
Arlington County Land Records Office, various deeds pertaining to Gertrude S. Bonnin and R.T. Bonnin: Deed Book 609, p. 237, book 319, p. 64, and book 174, p. 152.
Zitkála-Šá, “The School Days of an Indian Girl”, Atlantic Monthly, Volume 85, 1900.
Zitkála-Šá, “Why I Am A Pagan”, Atlantic Monthly, Volume 90, 1902.
Lewandowski, Tadeusz. Red Bird, Red Power: The Life and Legacy of Zitkala-Ša, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2016. (Available from the Library)
Susag, Dorothea M., Zitkala-Sa (Gertrude Simmons Bonnin): A Power(full) Literary Voice, Studies in American Indian Literatures, University of Nebraska Press, Series 2, Vol. 5, No. 4 (Winter 1993), pp. 3-24.
Tsjeng, Zing, Forgotten Women: The Leaders. London: Cassell Illustrated, 2018. (Available from the Library)
Capaldi, Gina. Red Bird Sings: the Story of Zitkala-̈Sa, Native American Author, Musician, and Activist, Carolrhoda Books, 2011. (Available from the Library)
"Preservation Today: Rediscovering Arlington" is a partnership between the Arlington Public Library and the Arlington County Historic Preservation Program.
Preservation Today: Rediscovering Arlington
Stories from Arlington’s Historic Preservation Program
Arlington’s heritage is a diverse fabric, where people, places, and moments are knitted together into the physical and social landscape of the County.
Arlington County’s Historic Preservation Program is dedicated to protecting this heritage and inspiring placemaking by uncovering and recognizing all these elements in Arlington’s history.
To learn more about historic sites in Arlington, visit the Arlington County Historic Preservation Program.
Ellen Bozman is an important name in Arlington County. As the longest serving member of the Arlington County Board to date, Bozman supported countless causes that have made long lasting impacts on the county and Northern Virginia.
Born and raised in Illinois, Bozman came to Arlington after graduating from Northwestern University. She began her public service in Arlington with the League of Women Voters and served on other boards and committees until her run for County Board in 1974. During her time on the Board, Bozman saw significant changes in Arlington - its development, transportation, and citizens were very different when she retired in 1997 than they had been when she began 23 years earlier.
In this oral history clip, Bozman shares with interviews Edmund Campbell and Cas Cocklin her experiences working on other boards and committees before her first run as a Democrat-backed Independent candidate for the County Board:
NARRATOR: Ellen Bozman
INTERVIEWER 1: Edmund Campbell
INTERVIEWER 2: Cas Cocklin
DATE: May 15, 1987
EC: You ultimately became President of the League, did you?
EB: Yes. Those were busy years for the League and I was President from '63 to '65. Then, as you know, once you have been president of an organization, there's no readymade spot for you so you look around and you tend to do other things. Then I later chaired the Health and Welfare Council of Arlington and the Committee of One Hundred and finally in the early '70's chaired the Rock Springs Congregational Church Council. About that time, some of my friends jokingly said well since you've done a church council, you're ready to run for the Board.
CC: Had you ever given any thought prior to that to getting into politics?
EB: Only recently prior to that. And the change really came about when I served on the Planning Commission. Up until the time I served on the Planning Commission, I didn't think that, first of all, I thought of myself as an administrator rather than a politician. Secondly, I had been through some, I had been standing on the fringes and involved in some very, very tumultuous political times in Arlington.
EC: Such as?
EB: Well, when you go way back and I remember Barbara Riches who was on the School Board saying to me, "I don't care when they throw garbage on my front porch because I know they don't have anything more important they're doing." Very split community. Very difficult and personal political campaigns. A kind of atmosphere that I didn't think that I was ready or wanted to participate in. But times change.
To learn more about Ellen Bozman;s life and work, visit the Center for Local History's online exhibit, Women's Work.
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 catalogued 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.
Check out our authors, oral histories, films, arts and crafts, storytimes, music and more!
Learn how she weaves real life experiences into her novels, including “Brown Girl Dreaming,” which won the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature, and “Another Brooklyn,” her first adult novel in twenty years.
Arlington Reads Signature Author
Jacqueline Woodson in Conversation with Library Director Diane Kresh
Central Library Auditorium
Thursday, March 14, 7 – 8:30 p.m.
The 2019 Arlington Reads series “Our Stories, Ourselves” features four women writers whose diverse voices and experiences remind us that everyone has a story. Appearing in April and May: Mary Karr, Susan Orlean and Tracy K. Smith.
About "The Trial of Lizzie Borden"
"Think you know the whole story of Lizzie Borden? You have no idea. "The Trial of Lizzie Borden" provides a thoroughly researched and highly detailed account of the ins-and-outs of the trial that became a media sensation, the lives and deaths of a husband and wife, and the enigmatic woman at the center of it all. For readers who enjoyed The Suspicions of Mr. Wicher and The Devil in the White City."
Reviewed for you here by librarian Sarah. Publication date is set as March 12, 2018.
Win a Book Wednesdays takes place twice a month. Prize books are Advance Reader Copies (ARCs) of books that will be added to the Library collection within the next month, and can already be found in the Library catalog as "on order."
ARCs are uncorrected proofs given to the Library for review purposes only, and are not for sale.
Arlington’s annual operating budget outlines spending on County services and administration, including the Library, for the coming fiscal year, which begins July 1.
Learn all about it in the Arlington County website.
