DAR Museum

12/07/2023

On Friday, December 15th, we will be showing historic Christmas films at the DAR Museum. One of the films is a stop-motion animated film made in Moscow just before World War I.

The first stop motion film ever made was produced in the USA in 1898 by J. Stuart Blackton and Albert E. Smith. Smith wanted to patent the process, but Blackton insisted that stop-motion animation would never catch on!

The original film is long since lost, but a single frame survives, which you can see here. The film was called "Humpty Dumpty Circus," and was made using a popular toy at the time owned by Smith's daughter. Look familiar?

We have the same set in the New Hampshire Attic Period Room at the DAR Museum!

Like many objects in the DAR Museum, the Humpty Dumpty Circus is connected to so many stories and moments in history. Not just a display piece, not just a toy, but a connection to a grand tale of innovation and imagination that comes from moving pictures. Its one of the many things that makes this place so special.

Please join us on December 15th to explore the film history of the holiday season. There's always more to discover at the DAR Museum!

https://www.dar.org/national-society/events/making-holiday-magic-films-made-christmas-1892-1947 #:~:text=Join%20us%20for%20a%20magical,influential%20films%20of%20the%20era.

12/07/2023

DAR Headquarters will be closed for a staff appreciation event. The Museum will be open on Friday, December 8 and Saturday, December 9.

12/01/2023

Some symbols of power remained consistent from the 18th into the 19th century. One, in particular, was the use of wild or exotic animals to suggest the sitter's ability to control any situation, including controlling nature. Here, Elisabeth Haley is seated, commanding the viewer's gaze with her own while enticing a parrot with food. Birds, squirrels, and other wild animals, as well as enslaved Blacks, were commonly used as symbols to show the sitter's ability to control.

11/28/2023

It’s and you can help preserve and celebrate our rich American history! Give now and your gift will secure the future of Memorial Continental Hall and the treasures it holds.

https://fundraise.givesmart.com/form/MH6G6A?vid=12d8ai

11/27/2023

very kid seems to want the latest technological toy this time of year, but sometimes old-fashioned, hands-on toys can win the day. No batteries required, skill-building, and able to inspire creativity, these toys never go out style. Most of the toys offered by the DAR Museum Shop are just the right size to fit in a stocking hung by the chimney with care.

Get 20% off regular priced items using code MSS2023 at checkout. Applies only to DAR Museum Shop items. DAR Store and DAR Insignia items are not included in this sale but can be ordered at the same time. Sale ends tonight at midnight PST.

https://shop.dar.org/dar-museum-shop/

11/27/2023

This fabric covered homemade book is a mystery. Found in the collection, it contains a dozen pages with detailed hand drawn watercolor pictures of shells, yet it provides no clue about who made it or when it was made.
Our theory is that it was produced by a shell collector who was inspired by books like "Conchology", published by English naturalist George Perry in 1811. Perry’s book included 61 pages of color illustrations documenting a wide variety of shells. This publication and others helped fuel the popularity of collecting and studying shells in the 19th century.

11/27/2023

Whether you’re writing a list for Santa, keeping a journal, or recoding family stories for history, the DAR Museum Store has items to help make those tasks more unique and fun. Try your hand at writing with a quill pen or a wood dip pen. Seal up a note with red wax and seal featuring an eagle design. If you’re feeling fancy, we have an elegant brass inkwell similar to the one in the current exhibit. We also stock a variety of hardbound, lined journals in various sizes. And don’t forget the ink powder to mix your own ink to record your thoughts for future generations!

Use code MSS2023 at checkout to get 20% off regular priced items. Applies only to DAR Museum Shop items. DAR Store and DAR Insignia items are not included in this sale but can be ordered at the same time. Sale ends tonight at midnight PST.

https://shop.dar.org/dar-museum-shop/

11/26/2023

How do you like to relax after a long weekend of holiday shopping? A good book or a cup of tea sound pretty good. Or maybe both! Something things are better together, either for yourself as a treat or combined for a useful and thoughtful gift for a friend.

You can get 20% off all books, teas, teacups, tea sets, or any other regular priced items in the DAR Museum Shop online store with code MSS2023 at checkout. Sale applies only to DAR Museum Shop items. DAR Store and DAR Insignia items are not included in this sale but can be ordered at the same time.

https://shop.dar.org/dar-museum-shop/

11/26/2023

What is Museum Store Sunday? It is an opportunity for communities to support their local cultural institutions simply by doing their holiday shopping at their museum stores. This year more than 2,100 Museum Stores representing all fifty states and the District of Columbia, 25 countries, and five continents will offer relaxing, inspired shopping at your favorite museums and cultural institutions. The DAR Museum is closed on Sundays but is still participating by offering 20% off in the DAR Museum Shop online store.

https://shop.dar.org/dar-museum-shop/

11/25/2023

One of the small businesses the DAR Museum has worked with on custom items is Green Treen Jewelry, an American laser-craft small family business with a sustainable mission that designs and makes all products in California. They have made magnets and wooden puzzles based on collection items for the DAR Museum Shop and we also carry some their patriotic earring and bracelets.

Use code MSS2023 at checkout to get 20% off regular priced items. Applies only to DAR Museum Shop items. DAR Store and DAR Insignia items are not included in this sale but can be ordered at the same time.

https://shop.dar.org/dar-museum-shop/

11/25/2023

Museum Stores and small businesses make great partners! The DAR Museum shop sources most of its products from small business, both local and global. We have jewelry made here in DC and ornaments made in countries across the globe to support artisans and fair trade.

Get 20% off regular priced items using code MSS2023 at checkout. Applies only to DAR Museum Shop items. DAR Store and DAR Insignia items are not included in this sale but can be ordered at the same time.

https://shop.dar.org/dar-museum-shop/

11/24/2023

What’s a sale without a clearance section? Find jewelry, home goods, toys, and more in the Clearance section in the online DAR Museum Shop for up to 50% off original price. While supplies last and they may go fast!

Clearance items are not included in the 20% off sale, but use code MSS2023 at checkout for 20% off any regular priced DAR Museum Shop items.

https://shop.dar.org/dar-museum-shop/

11/24/2023

As Lucas and Chloe Cushing began to establish themselves in western New York, they employed the services of Rueben Rowley to paint their pictures. Rowley portrayed them as affluent and fashionable, especially for a part of the state that was not as populated and developed as the coastal region. This was probably an intentional choice by the Cushings, to place them in a higher part of this growing community. It could have also benefitted their business efforts as they tried to attract equally affluent clients.

11/24/2023

Our current exhibit “Pleasing Truths: Power and Portraits in the American Home” will be open through the end of the year. But don’t despair if you aren’t able to make it to DC, you can pick up a copy of the catalog that contains images of all the portraits in the exhibit. If you know any budding artists or feel inspired yourself the DAR Museum Shop also has painting supplies that would make a gift basket. Be sure to check out the “Portrait Exhibit” category in the online store for these items and more.

For 20% off regular priced items use code MSS2023 at checkout. Applies only to DAR Museum Shop items. DAR Store and DAR Insignia items are not included in this sale but can be ordered at the same time.

https://shop.dar.org/dar-museum-shop/

11/23/2023

It’s almost everyone’s favorite time of year again, Museum Store Sunday! While the DAR Museum is closed on Sundays you can still support the museum shop online. Museum Store Sunday was started in 2017 to round out the weekend of special sales days after Thanksgiving and to remind patrons to support their local cultural institutions by doing holiday shopping at their museum stores.

And if one day of sales is good, then 4 days is better! This year all regular priced items will be 20% off Friday November 24th through Monday November 27th in out online store when the special code is used. The sale code will be posted on DAR Museum social media and the Museum Shop website starting Friday.

Find other online museum store participating in Museum Store Sunday: https://museumstoresunday.org/online-store-locator

11/22/2023

Happy Thanksgiving! The DAR Headquarters will be closed for the Thanksgiving holiday. The museum will reopen on Monday, November 27

11/20/2023

Duck, duck . . . or maybe goose, goose?
These cobalt decorated stoneware figural salt and pepper shakers have been hiding in the collection but now they are flapping and honking their way out for everyone to enjoy. These waterfowl were made around 1850, likely as a pair. They are 3” and 4” tall.

11/17/2023

When Elizabeth Graddy Martin remarried in 1832, she and her husband had their portraits painted by Patrick Henry Devenport. When Elizabeth's previous husband died, he left their daughter and his side of the family with all of his wealth and property. Elizabeth, left with little of her own, made it a point to show off her new wealth through the inclusion of a fine dress and numerous jewelry pieces in her picture. By including these elements, Elizabeth was attempting to reassert herself among her social peers.

11/14/2023

Next year's exhibit, "Sewn in America: Making - Meaning - Memory" will examine dressmaking innovations from 1770 to the 1920s.
Professional dressmakers were hired not only by the elite, but by many middle class women, to get the snug fit over the corset that propriety and fashion demanded. But after 1870, paper patterns were available to the home sewer, making home dressmaking somewhat easier (they came with hardly any directions, and you still had to customize the fit to your own body!).
So from the outside, can you tell which of these mid-1890s dresses was probably made by a dressmaker, and which was almost certainly made at home?
They both are pretty nicely made and fashionable for their time (the purple and white even has the slightly modified leg of mutton of 1896, after the peak of the style you see in the green wool).
But their interiors reveal a very home-made level of expertise and finishing on the cream dress, and more professional work on the green tweed.
The cream bodice will be shown open in next year's exhibit.

https://collections.dar.org/mDetail.aspx?
rID=2007.6.a&db=objects&list=det&dir=DARCOLL&page=undefined
https://collections.dar.org/mDetail.aspx?rID=2011.12.1.a&db=objects&list=det&dir=DARCOLL&page=undefined

11/13/2023

Due to the demonstration and most street closure around the National Mall area, the Daughters of the American Revolution National Headquarters Building and the DAR Museum will be closed tomorrow, November 14.

11/12/2023

Hmm... something is not quite right here.
The plaque that was nailed to the table of this wool wheel when it was donated in 1939 claimed that it came from England about 1625. But the original spindle is a "Minors Head", patented in 1810.
This is why curators carefully examine the object itself as well as the information provided by donors before assigning dates to museum objects. This was made between 1816-1825 in New York.

11/11/2023

Join Curator Patrick Sheary as he assembles an 18th century girandole to place in one of the DAR Museum period rooms.

Join Curator Patrick Sheary as he assembles an 18th century girandole for installation into on the DAR Museum period rooms.

11/10/2023

Personal success and independence were common reasons for one to commission a portrait. Amelia Stratton Comfield had a lot to be proud of when she sat for her portrait. In 1841, Comfield became a successful author with the publication of her novel, Alida, set in America during the War of 1812. By 1849, the novel was in its 4th edition. Comfield was so proud of the success of her novel that she included it in her portrait twice. Want to read Alida? Its on Google Books: https://www.google.com/books/edition/Alida/WCWSh4PKuHwC?hl=en&gbpv=0

11/09/2023

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11/08/2023

Neal Hurst, Colonial Williamsburg’s Associate Curator of Costume and Textiles, selected a ca. 1815–1820 dress pattern from the DAR Museum exhibition catalogue “An Agreeable Tyrant”: Fashion After the Revolution to make a reproduction dress for under a spencer jacket for display at Colonial Williamsburg

You can read the whole article here: https://www.colonialwilliamsburg.org/learn/behind-the-scenes/completing-the-ensemble/?fbclid=IwAR02oOg_qONtIZMPVaim21LvjALvuRyXSWHeZSyoDsKWE7GCuJa8L38LAR0_aem_AYd5-tnyY-YKVLfqD7Q30W2YrQ0uZWFO2O97erOOtSEN89N7YRj6b3BCGMMnnYlJ-As&mibextid=S66gvF

Interested in making it yourself? You can get the pattern here:

The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation’s collections include garments for men, women, and children dating mainly from ca. 1725 to 1840. Costumes in the Art Museums are typically displayed with appropriate undergarments, wigs, and accessories to provide guests as much historical context as possible. ...

11/07/2023

Have you ever wanted to sew something, but didn’t know how to start?
In the mid-19th century, women could rely on books like Mrs. Pullen’s The Lady’s Manual of Fancy Work which contained patterns, instructions and advice for needlework, knitting, crocheting, and other sewing projects. The unfinished needlework slipper in the center of this photo was made from a pattern like one that appears in Mrs. Pullen’s book, printed on the right. The unfinished slipper is one of a pair in the DAR Museum collection.

11/03/2023

In 1785, Thomas Jefferson wrote, "I am an enthusiast on the subject of the arts...its object is to improve the taste of my countrymen, to increase their reputation." In Jefferson's America, not only could art improve one's reputation, but it could also transmit their status to others. The viewers of Ralph Izard's portrait miniature would have understood the stature of the wearer, as well as Izard, by the expensive nature of this art form and the well-dressed manner of the subject.

11/01/2023

This engraving was created in 1793 by William Richardson, after Simon de Passe. The Passe portrait is the sole surviving portrait of Pocahontas from her lifetime. During her stay in England from 1616 to 1617, the original print was produced.
Pocahontas (also known as Matoaka, and later Rebecca) is depicted wearing the elegant attire of an English courtier, complete with a tall hat, lace collar, pearl earring, and ostrich feather fan. Her appearance reflects her presentation in London as an "Indian Princess". The print has served as the inspiration for numerous later depictions of Pocahontas as her fame grew.

10/29/2023

How did descendants of American loyalists reconcile their family's politics with their own identities?

Join MaryKate Smolenski to learn about the story of Martha Codman Karolik, a Boston Brahmin who inherited a portrait of her loyalist ancestor, Katherine Greene Amory. Karolik denied her family's loyalism and published a journal that overlooked the presence of loyalists in the Revolutionary era. She will explore how Karolik's story is entangled in the history of race, gender, nationalism, and memory.
Register now for the symposium: https://FramingIdentitySymposium.eventbrite.com



Image: Portrait of Mrs. John Amory (Katherine Greene), c. 1763, John Singleton Copley, Oil on Canvas, 126.68 x 101.6 cm (49 7/8 x 40 in.), The M. and M. Karolik Collection of Eighteenth-Century American Arts, 37.36, Image Courtesy of the MFA, Boston

10/24/2023

Did you know the collections staff inventories all 31 period rooms and the galleries every year?
We take lists of objects to each location and check each item off. That is roughly 3745 objects we check each year. Some rooms take longer than others.
Can you guess which period room has the most objects? Here’s a hint: the name has two words, and it’s a lot of fun!

10/22/2023

Picturing the Fortens: A Look at the Material World of a Free Black Family in 19th Century Philadelphia

Join us to learn about the Fortens, a prominent free Black family in Philadelphia during the 19th century. Matthew Skic will explore painted and photographic portraits of three generations of the Forten family to better understand their material world. He will also discuss the challenges and limitations of researching the Fortens, especially the fact that only one photograph of one of the nine children of James Forten and Charlotte Vandine Forten is known to survive.



Register now for the symposium: https://FramingIdentitySymposium.eventbrite.com

Image: This photograph shows abolitionist Charlotte Vandine Forten in the 1860s. She died in 1884 at the age of 99. Courtesy of the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, Howard University Archives, Howard University, Washington DC

10/21/2023

During the 19th century, westward expansion brought increased interest in and conflict with Native Americans. American attitudes towards Native Americans were shaped by stories and art. In the 19th century, the US War Department commissioned portraits of Native American delegations to Washington. Interest in these paintings was so high that the original paintings were reproduced as prints for mass consumption in a book, History of the Indian Tribes of North America. Painted by Charles Bird King, these subjects were posed in ways that were familiar to Bird and his white audience. This portrait resembles the mother and child paintings so prevalent in European art. One contemporary reviewer of the book even called the portrait the “Indian Madonna.” However, behind this pleasing portrait is a dark truth that reveals a gap between how Native Americans were portrayed and the violent exploitation they experienced in the 19th century.

The adult in this portrait is an Osage woman named Mohongo, also known as Sacred Sun. The Osages controlled a large region that included what is now Missouri, Arkansas, Kansas, and Oklahoma. After the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the Osages were forced to cede most of their territory to the US through a series of treaties. In 1827, Mohongo and her husband were among a group of several Osages who were targeted by a con man named David Delauney, who claimed to be a representative of the US government and invited them on an official trip to Washington, D.C. The group boarded a ship in New Orleans and, to their surprise, landed in France, where Delauney planned to make them performers in his wild west show. At first, the group drew great interest in Europe and even met royalty. However, when their popularity waned, Delauney abandoned them in Paris. The Osages struggled to survive on their own and during this time, Mohongo gave birth to a child.

Eventually, the group caught the attention of the Marquis de Lafayette, who paid for them to travel back to America. On the trip, Mohongo’s husband and several others died of smallpox. The group landed in Virginia, and soon after, Thomas McKenney, the US Superintendent of Indian Affairs, brought them to DC in 1830. There, Mohongo was given a peace medal by President Andrew Jackson and Charles Bird King painted this portrait of her before she returned to the Osage Nation. That very same year, President Jackson enacted the Indian Removal Act, which forced the Cherokee and other southeastern tribes to move onto land that had been taken from the Osages. The Osage Nation moved to its current reservation in Oklahoma in 1872. In the early twentieth century, oil was discovered on the reservation, leading to a series of murders that are investigated in David Grann’s book, Killers of the Flower Moon, which is coming to theaters this month as a film adaptation by Martin Scorsese.

10/20/2023

Ruth Henshaw Bascom offered her talents as an artist to paint watercolor portraits on paper. This medium made owning a copy of one's likeness more affordable, compared to the more traditional and expensive portrait done in oil paints on canvas. Bascom, a self-taught artist, is estimated to have produced nearly 2,000 likenesses in her lifetime, making portraiture accessible to more people than was previously available in the 18th century.

10/18/2023

Though the transfer-printed decoration on this plate is titled “The Baltimore and Ohio Rail Road” the actual train shows that of the Hetton Colliery Railway in England which opened in 1822 to transport coal from mines to the town of Sutherland. The engineer tends to the boiler while his trusted fireman monitors the fire in the firebox. A busy pastoral scene, look for another train. The transfer printed decoration is based upon a woodcut originally published in “The American Farmer” in 1826. This was made to commemorate the establishment of the first railroad in the United States, the B&O which opened in 1830. Made in Staffordshire, England by Enoch Wood & Sons between 1831 and 1836. DAR Museum object #3617

10/17/2023

This is Frank! Say "hi," Frank!
..

In a former life, Frank was a Scottish ram, most likely a regimental mascot whose head was preserved after his death to commemorate his faithful service. A jeweled s***f box was mounted in his forehead, decorative thistle-like tips were added to his horns, and he was mounted on wheels to make it easier to roll the s***fbox at social gatherings. Frank was turned into a s***f box sometime between 1860 and 1890, and he came to the museum in 2002. As preservation chemicals often contained poisons like arsenic, Frank is handled with great care.

Come see Frank and enjoy our other seasonal offerings on display through October 31st! And be sure to check out our after hours Halloween event on October 26th! See dar.org/museum/programs-events for details! ***f ***fbox

10/15/2023

A Fashionable Gentleman in Miniature

Mary Way's "Gentleman" is a stunning example of a dressed miniature, a unique style of painting that was popular in Connecticut in the early republic. The portrait depicts a fashionable male sitter in the height of 1790s fashion. Way's meticulous attention to detail and use of delicate fabrics make this miniature a work of art to behold.
Join Dr. Josephine Rodgers to learn more about this fascinating work of art and its creator!
Register now for the symposium!
https://FramingIdentitySymposium.eventbrite.com



Image: Yale University Art Gallery, Lelia A. and John Hill Morgan, B.A. 1893, LL.B. 1896, M.A. (Hon.) 1929, Collection, 1940.532