DAR Museum

The DAR Museum in Washington, D.C., is an art and history museum operated by the National Society of Daughters of the American Revolution. It is housed in Memorial Continental Hall, just one street away from DAR Constitution Hall. The museum was founded in 1890, originally as a place to store and display family heirlooms. Over time, the collection grew through donations, membership dues, and purchases to more than thirty thousand objects made or used in America before the Industrial Revolution.

In more than thirty historically furnished rooms, you can admire furniture, silver, paintings, ceramics, and textiles. Designed in the Colonial Revival style, these rooms range from gentlemen's studies to bedrooms and a large attic filled with toys. A special highlight for young visitors is the New Hampshire Toy Attic, where children between the ages of four and ten can play with replicas of historical toys. The museum also offers guided and self-guided tours as well as an extensive library of genealogical works.

In addition to the permanent collection, the museum presents rotating exhibitions that explore fashion and social change. One major collection includes more than five hundred quilts and coverlets from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, often tied to personal stories of the women who made them. For school groups and families, there are free programs on topics such as historical quilt making and life in the colonial era.