Expanding the DAR Museum Collection

Every year, DAR Museum curators field hundreds of questions from members and the public alike. One of the more common is a variation on, “what do you need for the collection” or “is this item I have suitable for the collection?” This blog describes the types of things we are currently seeking to add to the DAR Museum. That does not mean we aren’t interested in what you might offer; it simply means that every possibility can’t be contained within a simple list.

We continuously add items to the collection, so what we are looking for changes over time. For example, during the past six years, we redoubled our efforts to find objects made or used by people who are under-represented in our collection, e.g. by geographic area, ethnic/racial group or socio-economic class. It is in this way that we will be able to share the history of Americans and the homes that they made in all of their wonderful variety.

Last month, using money from the Friends of the Museum Fund, we secured the acquisition of a Native American powder horn used during the American Revolution. We are still looking for powder horns with connections to the South and Mid-Atlantic states and those used by African Americans. 

Samplers are a category we are working to diversify. We are looking for examples from the Gulf states and deep south, as well as Arkansas, Oklahoma and, somewhat surprisingly, from New England.

In the area of clothing, men’s wear of all kinds is underrepresented. The two ends of the spectrum, evening wear and work wear, are two areas of our costume collection that need bolstering. 

Art and prints are an area where we would like to add more works by women artists such as Maria Sibylla Merian and the Peales (Sarah, Anna Claypoole, Elizabeth Depeyster).  We would also love to add a painting by African American portraitist Joshua Johnson to the collection. Prints of early Native Americans by Theodore de Bry are also on our list. For our silver collection, we are looking for specific makers: Nathanial Hurd, Paul Revere (the Patriot) and Peter Bentzon. 

The DAR Museum is rich with objects that have come to us with a family history or provenance, mostly due to the generosity of past members who gave their family heirlooms for us to preserve and share with the public. It is one of our strengths, and we would love to continue that practice by adding objects made or used by African Americans, Native Americans and the myriad other cultures that make up America and the DAR membership.