Daughters of the American Revolution

src: www.vadar.org

The Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) is a lineage-based membership service organization for women who are directly descended from a person involved in the United States' efforts towards independence. A non-profit group, they work to promote historic preservation, education, and patriotism. The organization's membership is limited to direct lineal descendants of soldiers or others of the Revolutionary period who aided the cause of independence; applicants must have reached 18 years of age and are reviewed at the chapter level for admission. It currently has approximately 185,000 members in the United States and in several other countries. Its motto is "God, Home, and Country."

Since the late 20th century, following the civil rights movement and changes in historic scholarship, the organization has expanded its membership, recognizing minority contributions and expanding the definition of those whose work is considered to have aided the Revolution, and recognizing more ways in which women and other people served.

Video Daughters of the American Revolution

Founding

In 1889 the centennial of President George Washington's inauguration was celebrated, and Americans looked for additional ways to recognize their past. Out of the renewed interest in United States history, numerous patriotic and preservation societies were founded. On July 13, 1890, after the Sons of the American Revolution refused to allow women to join their group, Mary Smith Lockwood published the story of patriot Hannah White Arnett in the Washington Post, asking, "Where will the Sons and Daughters of the American Revolution place Hannah Arnett?" On July 21 of that year, William O. McDowell, a great-grandson of Hannah White Arnett, published an article in the Washington Post offering to help form a society to be known as the Daughters of the American Revolution. The first meeting of the society was held August 9, 1890.

The first DAR chapter was organized on October 11, 1890, at the Strathmore Arms, the home of Mary Smith Lockwood, one of the DAR's four co-founders. Other founders were Eugenia Washington, a great-grandniece of George Washington, Ellen Hardin Walworth, and Mary Desha. They had also held organizational meetings in August 1890. Other attendees in October were Sons of the American Revolution members Registrar General Dr. George Brown Goode, Secretary General A. Howard Clark, William O. McDowell (SAR member #1), Wilson L. Gill (secretary at the inaugural meeting), and 18 other people.

The First Lady, Caroline Lavina Scott Harrison, wife of President Benjamin Harrison, lent her prestige to the founding of DAR, and served as its first President General. Having initiated a renovation of the White House, she was interested in historic preservation. She helped establish the goals of DAR, which was incorporated by congressional charter in 1896.

In this same period, such organizations as the Colonial Dames of America, the Mary Washington Memorial Society, Preservation of the Virginia Antiquities, United Daughters of the Confederacy, and Sons of Confederate Veterans were also founded. This was in addition to numerous fraternal and civic organizations flourishing in this period.

Maps Daughters of the American Revolution

Historic programs

The DAR chapters raised funds to initiate a number of historic preservation and patriotic endeavors. They began a practice of installing markers at the graves of Revolutionary War veterans to indicate their service, and adding small flags at their gravesites on Memorial Day.

Other activities included commissioning and installing monuments to battles and other sites related to the War. The DAR recognized women patriots' contributions as well as those of soldiers. For instance, they installed a monument at the site of a spring where Polly Hawkins Craig and other women got water to use against flaming arrows, in the defense of Bryan Station (present-day Lexington, Kentucky).

In addition to installing markers and monuments, DAR chapters have purchased, preserved and operated historic houses and other sites associated with the war. See "DAR Historic Sites and Database" for a map and database of DAR sites.

src: www.wsdar.com

Segregation and exclusion of African-Americans

In 1932 the DAR adopted a rule excluding African-American musicians from performing at DAR Constitution Hall in response to complaints by some members against "mixed seating," as both blacks and whites were attracted to concerts of black artists. Washington, D.C., had segregated facilities under laws established by a Congress that supported segregation, which administered the city at the time. In 1945, African-American jazz singer Hazel Scott (then the wife of New York Democratic Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.) was excluded from performing at Constitution Hall.

In October 1945, the DAR invited First Lady Bess Truman to a tea at the hall, which she accepted. Congressman Powell protested and asked Truman not to attend the tea. She chose to go, but said publicly that she opposed discrimination (as did her husband). The White House received letters asking Bess Truman to resign from the DAR in protest of their policy; she declined to do so. Other letters supported her having attended the tea. The DAR did not officially reverse its "white performers only" policy until 1952.

Marian Anderson controversy

During the period of segregation and exclusion, in 1936 Sol Hurok, the manager of noted singer Marian Anderson, an African-American contralto, tried to book her at the DAR Constitution Hall. Owing to the "white performers only" policy, the DAR refused the booking. In 1939, Hurok, along with the NAACP and Howard University, petitioned the DAR to make an exception to their policy for Anderson, which the organization declined. Hurok tried to find a local high school for a performance, but the only suitable venue was an auditorium at a white high school (the public schools were segregated). The school board refused to allow Anderson to perform there.

The First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt invited Anderson to the White House to perform especially for her and President Roosevelt. During this time, Anderson came under considerable pressure from the NAACP to refuse to perform for segregated audiences. Eleanor Roosevelt resigned from her membership of the DAR in protest of their treatment of Anderson. Roosevelt and the Marian Anderson Committee arranged for the singer to give her concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, with the Mall of Washington as her auditorium. Symbolically, the concert took place on Easter Sunday, April 9, 1939.

The DAR later apologized to Anderson and welcomed her to Constitution Hall on a number of occasions. In 1942 she starred at a benefit concert for war relief during World War II. In 1964, the year of passage of the Civil Rights Act, Anderson chose Constitution Hall as the place to launch her farewell American tour. In 1992, at the opening night ceremonies of the DAR annual convention, the DAR awarded Marian Anderson the Centennial Medallion, which honors women who gave outstanding service to the nation. Due to health reasons, Anderson was unable to attend; the medallion and certificate were delivered to her at her home. On January 27, 2005, the DAR co-hosted the first "day of issue" dedication ceremony with the U.S. Postal Service, at which the Marian Anderson commemorative stamp was introduced and Anderson's family was honored.

First African-American member of DAR

In October 1977, Karen Batchelor Farmer (now Karen Batchelor) of Detroit, Michigan, was admitted as the first known African-American member of the DAR. Batchelor started her genealogical research in 1976 as a young mother who wanted to commemorate the American bicentennial year in a way that had special meaning for her family. Within 26 months, she had traced her family history back to the American Revolution. Batchelor traced part of her ancestry to a patriot, William Hood, an Irish-born soldier who served in the colonial militia in Pennsylvania during the Revolution in the defense of Fort Freeland.

With the help of the late James Dent Walker, head of Genealogical Services at the National Archives in Washington, D.C., Batchelor was contacted by the Ezra Parker Chapter in Royal Oak, Michigan, who invited her to join their chapter. In December 1977, Batchelor's admission as the first known African-American member of DAR sparked international interest after it was featured in a story on page one of the New York Times. She was invited to appear on Good Morning America, where she was interviewed by John Lindsay, former mayor of New York and regular guest host.

Batchelor co-founded the Fred Hart Williams Genealogical Society in 1979, an organization in Detroit for African-American family research. She continues to research her own family history and inspire others to do the same.

Ferguson controversy

In March 1984, Lena Lorraine Santos Ferguson, a retired school secretary, was denied membership in a Washington, D.C. chapter of the DAR because she was black, according to a report by the Washington Post. Her two white sponsors, Margaret M. Johnston and Elizabeth E. Thompson, were dismayed at their chapter response. Ferguson met the lineage requirements and could trace her ancestry to Jonah Gay, a white man who fought in Maine.

When asked for comment, Sarah M. King, the President General of the DAR, told the Washington Post that the DAR's chapters have autonomy in determining members. She made impolitic comments about the chapter's decision. After King's comments were reported, outrage erupted and the D.C. City Council threatened to revoke the DAR's real estate tax exemption. King quickly corrected her error, saying that Ferguson should have been admitted, and that her application had been handled "inappropriately." Representing Ferguson pro bono, lawyers from the Washington law firm of Hogan & Hartson began working with King to develop positive ways for the DAR to ensure that blacks would not be discriminated against in future application for membership. The DAR changed its bylaws to bar discrimination "on the basis of race or creed." In addition, King announced a resolution to recognize "the heroic contributions of black patriots in the American Revolution".

Ferguson was admitted to the DAR chapter. "I wanted to honor my mother and father as well as my black and white heritage," Ferguson said after being admitted. "And I want to encourage other black women to embrace their own rich history, because we're all Americans." She became chairwoman and founder of the D.C. DAR Scholarship Committee. Ferguson died in March 2004 at the age of 75.

Focus on racial diversity

Since the mid-1980s, the DAR has supported a project to identify the names of African Americans, Native Americans, and individuals of mixed race who were patriots of the American Revolution, expanding their recognition beyond soldiers. In 2008, DAR published Forgotten Patriots: African American and American Indian Patriots in the Revolutionary War. This is available for free online, as is a supplement published in 2012.

In 2007, the DAR posthumously honored Mary Hemings Bell, a former slave of Thomas Jefferson at Monticello, as a "Patriot of the Revolution." During the war, Hemings and other household slaves had been taken by Jefferson to the state capital Richmond to work for him after he was elected governor of Virginia. When the British invaded the city, they took Hemings and the other slaves at the governor's house as prisoners; Hemings and the other slaves were later released. (The American government officials had already escaped to Monticello and Charlottesville.)

After the war, Hemings gained informal freedom when her common-law husband, Thomas Bell, a white merchant from Charlottesville, purchased her and their two mixed-race children from Jefferson. She was forced to leave her two older children, Joseph Fossett and Betsy Hemmings (as she spelled it), enslaved at Monticello. After Bell's death, Mary and their two children inherited his estate. She kept in touch with her large extended family, still enslaved at Monticello, and aided her children there. When Jefferson's slaves were sold after his death in 1826 to settle his debts, she purchased family members to help keep families intact. Since Hemings Bell has been honored as a Patriot, all of her female descendants qualify for membership in the DAR.

In June 2012, Wilhelmena Rhodes Kelly and Dr. Olivia Cousins became charter members of a chapter with numerous African-American members, in Queens, New York; five of the 13 charter members are African American. Kelly, who organized the diverse chapter, was installed as the Charter Regent and Dr. Cousins as a chapter officer. Two of Dr. Cousins' sisters, Collette Cousins, who lives in Durham, North Carolina, and Michelle Wherry, who lives in Lewis Center, Ohio, pledged to travel to Queens for the monthly chapter meetings.

Daughters of the American Revolution gives out Good Citizen awards ...

src: static.texascommunitymedia.com

Accomplishments

The DAR Museum was founded in 1890 as a repository for family treasures. Today, the museum contains over 30,000 historical relics that form a collective memory of the decorative and fine arts in America from 1700-1850.
The DAR Library was founded in 1896 as a collection of genealogical and historical publications for the use of staff genealogists verifying application papers for the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution. Shortly after 1900 the growing collection was opened to the public and has remained so ever since.
The U. S. Army appointed DAR member, Dr. Anita Newcomb McGee, as Acting Assistant Surgeon, U. S. Army, in charge of nurses. She organized the DAR Hospital Corps, Army Nurse Corps, and served as NSDAR's first Librarian General.
The DAR Hospital Corps certified 1,081 nurses for service during the Spanish-American War. DAR later funded pensions for many of these nurses who did not qualify for government pensions.
During the Spanish-American War, DAR purchased a ship's tender for the USS Missouri to be used as a hospital launch for transporting the wounded from shore to ship.
To help with the war effort during World War I, DAR loaned its National Headquarters land to the United States. The federal government used the land to erect a temporary war office building that provided office space for 600 people.
After World War I, DAR funded the reconstruction of the water system in the village of Tilloloy, France, and donated more than $130,000 for the support of 3,600 French war orphans.
DAR provided materials for sewing, wood, and leatherwork to the immigrants detained for processing on Ellis Island. This helped to alleviate the depression and anxiety of these men and women who were strangers in a new land.
In 1921, DAR compiled and published the "DAR Manual for Citizenship." DAR distributed this guide to American immigrants at Ellis Island and other ports of entry. To date, more than 10 million manuals have been distributed.
From November 1921 until February 1922, world leaders met in DAR Memorial Continental Hall for the Conference on Limitation of Armaments, a groundbreaking meeting for peace.
The Americana Collection, founded in the early 1940s, brought together rare manuscripts and imprints previously scattered among the holdings of the DAR Museum and DAR Library. Today, the collection flourishes from more than 60 years of actively seeking out and acquiring artifacts that reflect a unique image of our nation.
DAR raised thousands of dollars to assist in the re-forestation project of the U.S. Forest Service during the 1940s.
During World War II, DAR provided 197,000 soldiers with care packages and sponsored all 89 crews of Landing Craft Infantry ships.
During World War II, the use of the DAR buildings was given to the American Red Cross. A children's day nursery was set up in the basement of Constitution Hall for enlisted men's wives who had to go to work.
The tradition of celebrating the Constitution was started many years ago by the Daughters of the American Revolution. In 1955, the DAR petitioned Congress to set aside September 17-23 annually to be dedicated for the observance of Constitution Week. The resolution was later adopted by the U. S. Congress and signed into Public Law #915 on August 2, 1956, by President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Slide Carousel for HSB-41: Inventing New England

src: www.courses.fas.harvard.edu

Contemporary DAR

There are nearly 180,000 current members of the DAR in approximately 3,000 chapters across the United States and in several other countries. More than 940,000 women have joined the organization since its founding 125 years ago. The organization describes itself as,"one of the most inclusive genealogical societies" in the United States, noting on its website that, "any woman 18 years or older -- regardless of race, religion, or ethnic background -- who can prove lineal descent from a patriot of the American Revolution, is eligible for membership".

Eligibility

Membership in the DAR today is open to all women, regardless of race or religion, who can prove lineal bloodline descent from an ancestor who aided in achieving United States independence. The National Society DAR is the final arbiter of the acceptability of the documentation of all applications for membership.

Qualifying participation in achieving independence includes the following:

Signatories of the United States Declaration of Independence;
Military veterans of the American Revolutionary War, including State navies and militias, local militias, privateers, and French or Spanish soldiers and sailors who fought in the American theater of war;
Civil servants of provisional or State governments, Continental Congress and State conventions and assemblies;
Signers of Oath of Allegiance or Oath of Fidelity and Support;
Participants in the Boston Tea Party;
Prisoners of war, refugees, and defenders of fortresses and frontiers; doctors and nurses who aided Revolutionary casualties; ministers; petitioners; and
Others who gave material or patriotic support to the Revolutionary cause.

The DAR published a book, available online [2], an extensive resource with the names of thousands of minority patriots, to enable family and historical research. Its online Genealogical Research System (GRS) [3] provides access to an extensive database, and it is digitizing family Bibles to collect more information for research.

The organization has chapters in all 50 U.S. states and in the District of Columbia. DAR chapters have been founded in Australia, Austria, the Bahamas, Bermuda, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Spain, and the United Kingdom.

Education outreach

The DAR contributes more than $1 million annually to support six schools that provide for a variety of special student needs. Supported schools:

Kate Duncan Smith DAR School, Grant, Alabama
Tamassee DAR School, Tamassee, South Carolina
Crossnore School, Crossnore, North Carolina
Hillside School, Marlborough, Massachusetts
Hindman Settlement School, Hindman, Kentucky
Berry College, Mount Berry, Georgia

In addition, the DAR provides $70,000 to $100,000 in scholarships and funds to American Indian youth at Chemawa Indian School, Salem, Oregon; Bacone College, Muskogee, Oklahoma; and the Indian Youth of America Summer Camp Program.

Civic work

DAR members participate in a variety of veteran and citizenship-oriented projects, including:

Providing more than 200,000 hours of volunteer time annually to veterans in U.S. Veterans Administration hospitals and non-VA facilities
Offering support to America's service personnel in current conflicts abroad through care packages, phone cards and other needed items
Sponsoring special programs promoting the Constitution during its official celebration week of September 17-23
Participating in naturalization ceremonies

Exhibits and library at DAR Headquarters

The DAR maintains an extensive genealogical library at its headquarters in Washington, DC and provides guides for individuals doing family research. Its bookstore presents the latest scholarship on United States and women's history.

Temporary exhibits in the galleries have featured women's arts and crafts, including items from the DAR's valuable quilt and embroidery collections. Exhibit curators provide a social and historical context for girls' and women's arts in such exhibits, for instance, explaining practices of mourning reflected in certain kinds of embroidery samplers, as well as ideals expressed about the new republic. Permanent exhibits include American furniture, silver and furnishings.

Literacy promotion

In 1989, the DAR established the NSDAR Literacy Promotion Committee, which coordinates the efforts of DAR volunteers to promote child and adult literacy. Volunteers teach English, tutor reading, prepare students for GED examinations, raise funds for literacy programs, and participate in many other ways.

American history essay contest

Each year, the DAR conducts a national American history essay contest among students in grades 5 through 8. A different topic is selected each year. Essays are judged "for historical accuracy, adherence to topic, organization of materials, interest, originality, spelling, grammar, punctuation, and neatness." The contest is conducted locally by the DAR chapters. Chapter winners compete against each other by region and nationally; national winners receive a monetary award.

Scholarships

The DAR awards $150,000 per year in scholarships to high school graduates, and music, law, nursing, and medical school students. Only two of the 20 scholarships offered are restricted to DAR members or their descendants.

DAR Fundraisers | Civic Group Fundraising Ideas | Rada Blog

src: www.radacutlery.com

Notable members

Living members

Dr. Betsy Boze, American academic, Chief Executive Officer and Dean, Kent State University Stark
Laura Bush, former First Lady of the United States
Rosalynn Carter, former First Lady of the United States, politician, political and social activist
Bo Derek, actress, former model, and conservative political activist
Elizabeth Dole, former U.S. Senator from North Carolina, former transportation secretary, labor secretary, American Red Cross president, Federal Trade Commissioner, presidential candidate, and presidential advisor
Tammy Duckworth, American Army veteran, former U.S. Representative, and as of 2017, U.S. Senator from Illinois. Duckworth is depicted along with Molly Pitcher in a statue sponsored by the DAR Illinois chapter and dedicated to women veterans on the grounds of the Brehm Memorial Library in Mt. Vernon, Illinois
Candace Whittemore Lovely, painter
Stephanie Moulton Sarkis, writer and psychotherapist
Margaret Rhea Seddon, NASA astronaut

Past members

Jane Addams, Activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner
Susan B. Anthony, American suffragist
Lillie Stella Acer Ballagh, national chairman of Colonial Relics
Clara Barton, American Red Cross founder
Leah Belle Kepner Boyce, State Recording and Secretary of the California Daughters of the American Revolution
Olivia Dudley Bucknam, Hollywood chapter
Vinnie B. Clark, established and developed the Geography Department at the San Diego State Teachers College
Inez Mabel Crawford, first registrar of the General Edward Hand Chapter
Estelle Skidmore Doremus, supporter of the New York Philharmonic
Saidie Orr Dunbar, Executive Secretary of the Oregon Tuberculosis Association
Caroline B. Eager, American philanthropist who worked mainly with the Igorot people of the Philippine Islands
Mary Baker Eddy, founder of Christian Science church
Isabel H. Ellis, Rubidoux Chapter
Infanta Eulalia of Spain, Spanish princess and author
Inglis Fletcher, American writer
Abigail Keasey Frankel, prominent club and civic worker of Portland. She was the first President of the Oregon Federation of Business and Professional Women
Dale Pickett Gay, Wyoming clubwoman and one of the best known women of her time in the oil business
Lillian Gish, actress
Fannie Smith Goble, held several high offices in Daughters of the American Revolution organization
Isophene Goodin Bailhache, National Vice-Chairman of Historic Spots, State Officer, Chapter Regent
Harriet A. Haas, attorney and member of Piedmont Board of Education
Sallie Foster Harshbarger, from 1920 to 1922, State Regent of the Daughters of the American Revolution
Caroline Harrison, former First Lady of the United States
Grace Hopper, Rear Admiral, USNR
Nancy A. Leatherwood, National chairman of Historical and Literary Reciprocity Committee of the Daughters of the American Revolution
Colonel Westray Battle Long, Director of the Women's Army Corps
Edith Bolte MacCracken, State Regent of the Daughters of the American Revolution
Virginia Donaghe McClurg, member
Moina Michael, educator and originator of Memorial Day Poppies
Anita Newcomb McGee, founder of the Army Nurse Corps
Sara E. Morse, held positions in several organizations
Grandma Moses, folk artist
Jacqueline Noel, leader in promoting the colonial history of the United States
Fannie Brown Patrick, musician and leader in civic and social affairs
Alice Paul, American suffragist
Edith Allen Phelps, twice president of the Oklahoma Library Association, the first professional in the Library Science field in the Oklahoma City system
Sarah Childress Polk, First Lady of the United States
Ada E. Purpus, member
Janet Reno, former Attorney General of the United States
Ginger Rogers, actress and dancer
Eleanor Roosevelt, First Lady of the United States. She resigned her membership in protest of racism.
Fannie Forbis Russel, one of the pioneer women of the state of Montana
Phyllis Schlafly, conservative political activist and writer
M. Elizabeth Shellabarger, Registered Nurse, army nurse overseas during World War I and director of American Red Cross Nursing Service in Albania and Montenegro
Jessamine Shumate, noted artist and cartographer
Margaret Chase Smith, US Congressman & US Senator
Vera Blanche Thomas, president of the Arizona State Nurses' Association from 1927 to 1928
Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, sculptor, art patron and collector, and founder in 1931 of the Whitney Museum of American Art

src: www.ncdar.org

Honors

A memorial to the Daughters of the American Revolution's four founders, at Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C., was dedicated on April 17, 1929. It was sculpted by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, a DAR member.

Constitution Hall History | Daughters of the American Revolution

src: www.dar.org

References

This article incorporates public domain material from the National Archives and Records Administration website https://www.archives.gov/.

Chic DAR wedding | Modern International Wedding Photographer

src: www.abbygraceblog.com

External links

National Society Daughters of the American Revolution, Official website
"DAR Historic Sites and Database", includes national map
Forgotten Patriots: African American and American Indian Patriots in the Revolutionary War, DAR, extensive information about minority patriots
Daughters of the American Revolution at Curlie (based on DMOZ)
Daughters of the American Revolution (David Reese Chapter) Collection (MUM00098), University of Mississippi
"Daughters of the American Revolution Library", FamilySearch Research Wiki, for genealogists
"Daughters of the American Revolution", image by Grant Wood
"A Guide to the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, Massanutton Chapter Records, 1885-2005" James Madison University's Massanutten Chapter, National Society of Daughters of the American Revolution Collection, 1885-2005
Works by Daughters of the American Revolution. Nebraska chapter at Project Gutenberg
Works by Daughters of the American Revolution. Pittsburgh chapter at Project Gutenberg
Works by or about Daughters of the American Revolution at Internet Archive
Second Oldest D.A.R. Chapter historical marker in Atlanta, Georgia

Source of article : Wikipedia

Daughters of the American Revolution

Tuesday, December 26, 2017