DAR Museum Chat
Thanks for joining our DAR Museum Chat with Jake Wynn of the National Museum of Civil War Medicine and the Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office!
DAR Museum Chat
Thank you for joining Museum Director and Chief Curator Heidi Campbell-Shoaf and Kate Gruber, Special Exhibitions Curator at the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation, for our DAR Museum Chat!
DAR Museum Chat
Thank you for joining Museum Director and Chief Curator Heidi Campbell-Shoaf and Angela Burnley from Burnley & Trowbridge Company for the first DAR Museum Chat! Angela, a textile history professional, has studied and reproduced several handkerchiefs in the DAR Museum collection. They talked about Angela's decision to reproduce 18th and early 19th century kerchiefs and the work that goes into creating a faithful reproduction.
Thank you Patrick Sheary for discussing our new exhibit Illuminating Design: The Decoration and Technology of E.F. Caldwell and Co., 1895-1959!
How do you install an exhibit timeline at the DAR Museum? You need our exhibits team, a ladder, a level, and a lot of patience. You have to make sure everything is straight! This timeline will greet visitors as they enter the new exhibit "Illuminating Design." We are officially two days out from exhibit opening! Who else is excited for the new exhibit? #illuminatingdesign
Thank you DAR President General Denise Doring VanBuren and Curator of Furnishings and Historic Interiors Patrick Sheary for discussing the newly acquired Waln-Morris desk and bookcase!
Find out the secrets behind some of your favorite Christmas songs! Join Curator of Education Katie Cannon as she takes you behind the scenes of our Christmas exhibit, “Songs of Christmas Past.”
*Apologies about the end of the video, poor connection on that side of the building. Hope you still enjoyed the behind the scenes look at the rooms!
Thank you Patrick Sheary, Curator of Furnishings and Historic Interiors, for discussing ceramics in the DAR Museum collection! Join us on the first Friday of the month for Facebook Live with a Curator to learn more about the DAR Museum collections!
Thank you to our Curator of Exhibitions, William Strollo, for showing off some of the pieces in our collection during our Coffee with a Curator! Join us live on the first Friday of the month to hear more about our exhibits and collections courtesy of our curators!
Join Curator of Costume and Textiles Alden O’Brien for a look at the costumes on exhibit.
Thank you for joining us for our Coffee with a Curator event. Today our Curator of Furnishings, Patrick Sheary, will discuss two recent reupholstery projects. Feel free to send us your questions and observations! We’d love to hear from you.
Welcome to our third Coffee with a Curator event. Today our Curator of Exhibitions, William Strollo, is chatting about the American portraits and American portraitists in the DAR Museum collection. Thank you for joining! Feel free to ask questions and we will pass them along.
Thank you for tuning in for our second Coffee with a Curator event! Join Curator Alden O’Brien in conversation about the DAR Museum’s quilt collection, with a focus on objects featured in our new exhibit “A Piece of Her Mind: Culture & Technology in American Quilts.”
Exhibition Installation
#BehindtheScenes Installation is nearly complete for our upcoming exhibition "A Piece of Her Mind: Culture & Technology in American Quilts." Featuring objects from 1820-1920, this exhibition will present quilts that reflect their makers’ interest in world events, such as advances in technology, botany, American politics, and more. Be the first to see this new exhibition on March 1st!
Join us for our first Coffee with a Curator conversation with DAR Museum Director and Chief Curator Heidi Campbell-Shoaf. Our conversation focuses on the early examples of photography in the collection. Welcome!
Museum Show & Tell
Welcome to our Museum Show & Tell. Join us as DAR Museum curators explore some of the highlights from the DAR Museum collection.
We host a Tuesday Talk lecture series every second Tuesday of the month. Check our our website www.dar.org for more information.
Hingeworthy Stork
It's all in the details! Look closely - this late 19th century silver stork ribbon threader has a swaddled baby in its belly that you can see when opening and closing its beak. It can also stand up on its foot when not in use. #hiddenhinges #hingeworthy
Decorating the Indiana Room for the Holidays
DAR Museum staff have started decorating for our "Songs of Christmas Past" exhibition. On view through January 5, 2019, the exhibit uses 8 of our period rooms to uncover the stories behind some of today's most popular carols. We hope you will be able to visit!
And don't forget to join us next Wednesday, December 5th from 5:30-8:00pm for the DAR's 17th annual Christmas Open House. All are welcome for this holiday event, which includes cookies, carolers, and even a visit from the big man himself! See www.dar.org/openhoues for more information.
Welcome to our #GivingTuesday Facebook live event! Thank you for joining Curator Alden O’Brien as she provides a sneak-peek of a remarkable object that the museum hopes to acquire through this year’s donations. If you’d like to help us bring this object to the DAR Museum, please consider donating at www.dar.org/gt. Thank you!
#ItAllHingesOnThis
This isn’t a tough nut to crack- it’s a nutcracker! This very simple, hinged tool is made of two pieces of wood held together with a wooden pin. Pressure on the ends squeezes the tops together, obliterating the inedible outer shell, thus exposing the delicious nutty reward! #hingeworthy #hiddenhinges
Hingeworthy
Why does this vessel have a hinged lid? It’s a flagon, which was used in religious ceremonies. The lid helps prevent spilling, and having a hinge with a solid “chair back” thumbpiece like this one makes opening and pouring easy. This flagon was made between 1820-1840 by Thomas & Sherman Boardman in Connecticut. #hiddenhinges #hingeworthy #itallhingeson
#Hingeworthy
At its most basic, the humble hinge is a simple fixed axis of rotation that connects two solid pieces and allows the two pieces to rotate to a certain degree relative to each other. Hinges can be found everywhere! Even joints in our body act as hinges, like the elbow joint.
This new Facebook feature will highlight some of the different types of hinges that can be found in our collection. Our first featured hinge is on a bale. Bales were very common household tools used to move cast iron pots, kettles and other cooking vessels around a fire. The two hooks are connected with a basic hinge that allows it to be used on many different sized objects. #hiddenhinges #humblehinge
We were honored to be asked to lend a turn-of-the-20th-century women’s tailored suit to the U.S. Supreme Court for its current exhibit, “In Re Lady Lawyers: The Rise of Women Attorneys and the Supreme Court.” The suit represents attire worn by Belva Lockwood, the first woman attorney to argue a case before the Supreme Court in 1880. In addition to being a lawyer, Lockwood was a suffragist and equal rights advocate; she ran for President in 1884 and 1888; and she was a DAR member! The suit is the sort Lockwood might have worn when appearing before the Bench to argue a case.
We also offered to dress the other garment in the exhibit: the suit worn by Sandra Day O’Connor when her nomination was announced in 1981. O'Conner was the first woman to become a Supreme Court Justice. The photo shows costume curator Alden O’Brien with costume historian Alison Polivka in the Curator’s Office of the Supreme Court.
The exhibit is open to the public along with the rest of the Court building and exhibits, M-F 9-4:30 (except Federal holidays). Check out more about the exhibit here: https://www.supremecourt.gov/visiting/RiseOfWomenAttorneys.aspx. All photos courtesy of the Supreme Court of the United States.
Welcome to the DAR Museum’s second annual World’s Fair event! We are glad you could join us! Let’s take a look.
If you are in the DC area, the event lasts until 3pm today, so there is still plenty of time to join in the festivities 🙂
On Wednesday some of our museum outreach volunteers enjoyed a behind-the-scenes tour of the period rooms with Patrick, the Curator of Period Rooms and Historic Furnishings. As an extra surprise, he set the mood by playing a record on our 1917 Edison phonograph.
Thank you to all our outreach volunteers who help share the collections of the DAR Museum with audiences around the country!
Unveiling our upcoming exhibition “Lately Arrived! Recent Additions to the Collection.”
Opens to the public June 25th!
Nodding Nodder
It's #HumpDay! Are you ready for the weekend? This porcelain clown figurine, known as a nodder, sure is! His signature nodding head movement is produced because the head is suspended above its body and has an attached weight that allows the head to move back and forth.
Although this nodder was made in France in the 19th century, nodders first appeared in17th century China, often in the form of a smiling Buddha. Nodders were produced in England, France and Germany in a wide variety of forms, including animals and children. The enduring appeal of this type of figurine can be seen in the popularity of today’s bobble head toys. #Readyfortheweekend
