Visitors to the DAR Museum enjoy peeking into the period rooms in Memorial Continental Hall, each one a snapshot of another time and place. Now our visitors can access information about the period rooms on several levels with the installation of new interpretive panels and booklets.

The first thing you notice is a large, illustrated panel that gives basic information about the room and a concise paragraph focusing on one topic. This serves those who just want a few facts: what the room shows, and what is something interesting about it. If you want more, you can consult a booklet that tells the story of the room in greater detail including its prominent objects and what it would be like to live in that time period.

People from around 75 different countries visit the DAR Museum annually. We have welcomed guests from Argentina, Saudi Arabia, the Netherlands, Thailand, and China, to name just a few! Those who speak a language other than English can now read the panels in Spanish, French, and Chinese.

We were pleased to share this new development with the American Alliance of Museums (AAM) when it had its annual conference in Washington, DC this year. At the conference, 50 museum professionals took a tour of the DAR Museum to view the new period room materials. They were impressed, and several took photographs to document what we had done.

We hope you’ll check out these new materials when you’re next in the building! View the slideshow to see the new interpretive panels.