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local history news

Mystery Door

Post Published: April 10, 2007

Do you recognize this scene?

Mystery door

This photograph was taken by Eleanor Lee Templeman, author of “Northern Virginia Heritage” and “Arlington Heritage,” which tell the story of our area’s development through the 1950s.

This photo was not used in either book, but was part of her donation of photographs to the Community Archives. It may be the door to a springhouse or cold food storage area.

What About You?

Do you recognize this door, or this area? The Virginia Room could use your help. Let us know what you remember!

 

April 10, 2007 by Web Editor Filed Under: News Archive, Our Back Pages, Unboxed Tagged With: local history news

Saving the Small Stuff

Post Published: January 16, 2007

 

Although you may think a ticket stub, sign, receipt or postcard is something that you use and then throw away, these materials many times have a much larger value.

These bits and pieces are called ephemera, and are vital in helping construct Arlington’s history. Ephemera, as defined by the Society of American Archivists, is “materials, usually printed documents, created for a specific, limited purpose, and generally designed to be discarded after use.” Ephemera is collected because of its association with a person, event or subject, such a bill signed by a famous person, a ticket stub to a nationally-known event, or, as above, showing the logo and method of advertisement for the Arlington Chamber of Commerce.

The sign above would be shown in an office or shop window, letting customers know that the business was affiliated with the Chamber of Commerce for 1949. That means they were part of a larger business community, networking with other businesses and working together on community projects.

Because of the date, the sign was meant to be thrown away at the end of the year. However, its existence in the Arlington Community Archives shows the Arlington Chamber of Commerce at the time was robust and active (the sign is made of heavy board with rich colors), and had a plan to showcase and advertise membership. Although the sign was meant to be thrown away, it remains in our collection as a valuable piece of ephemera.

The Arlington Community Archives has an entire collection of ephemera, Record Group 28, Pamphlets and Ephemera, and continues to take donations of this material. To find out more, see also “Ephemera: A Book on its Collection, Conservation and Use,” by Chris E. Makepeace, in the Virginia Room’s book collection.

 

What About You?
What kinds of ephemera do you have? What stories to they tell? Let us know what you remember!

 

January 16, 2007 by Web Editor Filed Under: News Archive, Our Back Pages, Unboxed Tagged With: local history news

The Ashton Heights Women’s Club

Post Published: October 3, 2006

The Ashton Heights Women’s Club originally started as a sewing circle that met near the Clarendon area in 1923.

It only took a year for membership to increase so much that the members decided to establish a women’s club instead. Since there were 35 charter members of the club, the women decided they needed a permanent meeting place, and went to local real estate developer Ashton Jones. Jones not only provided a lot on N. Irving Street, near Pershing Drive, but also helped obtain a loan to purchase the lot and build a clubhouse. To show their appreciation, the new club named themselves after Jones and “his” neighborhood, becoming the Ashton Heights Women’s Club.

Over the years, the Ashton Heights Women’s Club gained recognition for their work in the community. They organized bake sales, pot-luck dinners and garage sales, and let local youth and church groups hold dances and socials in their building. They also sponsored youth scholarships.

In 1927, the club joined other women’s clubs in the county to form the Federation of Women’s Clubs of Arlington County, which later was affiliated with the Virginia Federation of Women’s Clubs and the national General Federation of Women’s Clubs. Scrapbook contests, where individual clubs created scrapbooks covering their activities in a given year, were sponsored by all three federations. The scrapbook above is for the 1940-1941 club year, and has a watercolor drawing of the clubhouse on the cover.

In 2005, the club, down to a handful of older members, disbanded and sold their property on N. Irving Street. Their scrapbooks and other records were donated to the Arlington Community Archives, along with a generous monetary donation to preserve ten of their scrapbooks. The scrapbooks selected for preservation all have hand-decorated pages and fancy lettering, making these scrapbooks not just chronicles of the Ashton Heights Women’s Club’s activities, but beautiful artifacts in their own right.

What About You?

Were you or someone you know a member of the Ashton Heights Women’s Club? Did you attend any of their events? What about other local women’s clubs? Let us know what you remember!

 

October 3, 2006 by Web Editor Filed Under: News Archive, Our Back Pages, Unboxed Tagged With: local history news

A Generous Donation

Post Published: July 18, 2006

The Virginia Room recently received a wonderful donation of two 1936 Sanborn atlases of Arlington.

Thanks to the generosity of Eric Dobson and two other anonymous donors, these maps are now available to visitors to the Virginia Room:

Sanborn maps are greatly prized by researchers.

As they were originally designed for fire insurance assessment, they are color-coded and relate the location and use of buildings, as well as the materials employed in their construction. In addition, they indicate which city/county utilities, such as water and fire service, were available, the width and names of streets, and house and block numbers. As such they are a wonderful source of information regarding the structure and use of buildings in American communities.

The Virginia Room is greatly indebted to these three generous benefactors!

To see these as well as numerous other maps: topographic, street, survey, neighborhood, etc. visit the Virginia Room at the Central Library.

What About You?

Do you or any of your family members own old maps of Arlington? Do you remember when your house got new utilities, or if you changed addresses without moving your home? If you do, let us know!

 

July 18, 2006 by Web Editor Filed Under: News Archive, Our Back Pages, Unboxed Tagged With: local history news

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