DAR Museum

07/04/2025

Happy Independence Day!

In 18th-century America, taverns were a common meeting place to discuss current issues, such as the colonists’ fight for independence. At the DAR Museum, the Georgia period room is a replica of one such tavern.

Tondee’s Tavern in Savannah, Georgia, was owned by Peter Tondee. Following his death in 1775, his wife Lucy took over, and the tavern was used as a meeting place for patriots opposed to British rule.

We are closed for Independence Day, but resume our regular hours on Saturday, July 5. Please visit the DAR Museum to tour our special exhibition, Fighting for Freedom, and our amazing period rooms, including the Georgia tavern!

07/03/2025

DAR National Headquarters, including the Library and Museum, will be closed on July 4, 2025 for Independence Day. The Library and Museum will resume regular hours on Saturday July 5, 2025.

07/02/2025

Snapshots of Congress 2025 📸

Each June, NSDAR welcomes Daughters from all over for their annual meeting. Take a look at the week through the museum's lens!

Image 1: Museum educator Bella Moritz highlights objects from her exhibition case “Undressing Jane Austen’s World.”

Image 2: Each year during Congress, the museum puts together a pop-up shop in Constitution Hall.

Image 3: Part of the museum collection is made up of objects donated by DAR members. Each year members who have donated objects are recognized by the President General and other National Officers.

Image 4: Louisiana State Regent Mrs. Cheryl Whitlow Gott and Curator General Dr. Susan Metzger lead the “second line,” a Mardi Gras tradition, to the gallery.

Image 5: Louisiana State Curator Bobbi Foster giving a dedication speech before unveiling the renovated Louisiana Gallery.

Image 6: Curator of Exhibitions William Strollo and Curatorial Intern Lillie Ortloff pictured in front of new displays.

Image 7 and 8: DAR members peruse the new gallery.

Image 9: Educator Mikayla Ells and one of the DAR Museum Correspondent Docents. Correspondent Docents share the museum and its exhibits with other DAR members.

06/30/2025

DAR National Headquarters, including the Library and Museum, will open at 11 am on Tuesday, July 1, 2025.

06/27/2025

Join Curator Patrick Sheary as he shows a selection of objects related to trains, railroads, and steam engines from American history. Perfect way to wind down on a Friday evening!

Join Curator Patrick Sheary as he shows a selection of objects related to trains, railroads, and steam engines from American history.

05/23/2025

The DAR Museum, DAR Library and Daughters of the American Revolution National Headquarters are closed on Monday, May 26 for the holiday. The building will reopen on Tuesday, May 27.

05/19/2025

Around 1808–1818, a teenage girl named Katharine Wallace stitched this detailed silk embroidery ( #67.244) in Wilmington, Delaware, while attending a girls’ sewing and drawing school run by Elizabeth Montgomery. Her piece, Hector Taking Leave of Andromache, tells the story of Hector, leader of the Trojans, saying goodbye to his family before heading to battle. It’s a moment drawn from The Iliad, a famous ancient poem that many girls would have read in school at the time, especially through the popular translation by Alexander Pope.

The artwork blends several techniques and materials. The delicate faces and sky are hand-painted using watercolor, while the clothing, landscape, and architecture are built up from layers of fine stitching. Katharine used satin, stem, and fern stitches in soft silk threads and even metallic gold, creating texture and depth that still draw the eye today.

Girls at schools like Miss Montgomery’s often created needlework that showed off both artistic skill and classical knowledge. Their embroidered pictures were treasured by families and carefully preserved. This one was passed down from Katharine to her daughter, then to her granddaughter, and finally to the donor—a great-niece of the maker—who helped ensure it would be shared with the public.

05/16/2025

Prepare to be mesmerized by the fascinating history of the glass harmonica!

People have been making glasses sing for centuries. Players filled glasses with different amounts of water to tune them to the correct tones, as seen in this 15th century illustration. In 1761, Benjamin Franklin created the glass harmonica, which used glasses of different sizes to create the tones instead. Franklin’s version nested the glass bowls horizontally. Others, like our 19th century example, took the form of a case of glasses.

The glass harmonica became one of the most popular instruments of the 18th century. Beethoven and Mozart wrote music for it! The instrument was also taken up by Franz Mesmer, who claimed to heal people with a method called “animal magnetism.” During sessions, he played the glass harmonica and waved his hands to hypnotize his followers and supposedly cure them of illness.

Leaders on both sides of the Atlantic were concerned about the influence of Mesmer’s pseudoscientific ideas. The French government commissioned Benjamin Franklin and other scientists to test Mesmer’s ideas, which they proved to be false. It was the first state investigation of scientific fraud. The glass harmonica’s reputation suffered as a result of its association with Mesmer. However, its modern equivalent, the glass harp, is still played today by street performers and professionals, and has been featured in the music of Pink Floyd and Bjork.

05/15/2025

Wish you could bring a piece of our special exhibits home? Bring the whole family, some friends, or just yourself and join us in the Study Gallery to enjoy a rotating selection of fun coloring sheets inspired by the objects you’ll see on display! Can’t make it in to color with us in person? Visit us virtually at https://www.dar.org/museum/coloring-pages to download collection-inspired designs to color at home! Perfect for the whole family!

05/14/2025

This tiny piece of wood ( #54.4) might look unassuming, but it actually might have an illustrious backstory! According to the donor who gave this item to the DAR Museum in the 1950s, this half-inch fragment came from George Washington’s original coffin! As she explained it, the small piece was given to her husband by John Struthers, one of the makers of the marble sarcophagus that President Washington was transferred into in 1857.

While this story is hard to confirm for certain due to limited documentation, it’s pretty cool to think that this simple-looking object might very well have a presidential connection!

05/12/2025

What better way to enjoy spring weather and sun than with a good book! The DAR Museum collection contains hundreds of books from histories and textbooks to novels and ladies’ magazines. This copy of Homer’s “The Odyssey” translated into English by Alexander Pope, dates to 1814. Originally published in the mid-1720s, Pope’s translation, the first to translate the Odyssey using iambic pentameter (groups of five unstressed then stressed syllable pairs), became very popular and is still published today. What book will you be picking up this week?

05/11/2025

Happy Mother's Day!
In the tradition of giving or receiving flowers for Mother’s Day, we’ve selected a few flower arrangements from quilts in the DAR Museum collection.

Listed clockwise from the upper left corner are:
Quilt made by Sarah Metler Strong, in Ohio, 1845-1860 ( Object ID: 2011.10)
Quilt by an unknown maker in Ohio or Pennsylvania, 1840-51 (Object ID: 2772)
Quilt made by Mary Simon in Maryland, 1846 (Object ID: 98.31)
Quilt made by Ruth Pettit Penn in Maryland, 1850 (Obj ID: 92.172)

Learn more with the links below:
2011.10
https://collections.dar.org/mDetail.aspx?rID=2011.10&db=objects&list=det&dir=DARCOLL&page=undefined
2772
https://collections.dar.org/mDetail.aspx?rID=2772&db=objects&list=det&dir=DARCOLL&page=undefined
98.31
https://collections.dar.org/mDetail.aspx?rID=98.31&db=objects&list=det&dir=DARCOLL&page=undefined
92.172
https://collections.dar.org/mDetail.aspx?rID=92.172&db=objects&list=det&dir=DARCOLL&page=undefined