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 United States' independence. A non-profit group, they work to promote historic preservation, education and patriotism. The DAR has chapters in all 50 U.S. states as well as 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. As of 2012, over 850,000 women have been able to trace their lineage to join this organization. Although it is referred to as the DAR, the official name of this organization is the National Society of Daughters of the American Revolution (NSDAR).
In 1889 the centennial of President George Washington's inauguration was celebrated, and Americans looked for additional ways to recognize their heroic past. Out of the renewed interest in United States history, numerous patriotic and preservation societies were founded. The First Lady, Caroline Lavina Scott Harrison, wife of the United States President Benjamin Harrison, lent her prestige to the founding of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution (NSDAR). She served as its first President General. She had initiated a renovation of the White House to update its infrastructure and was interested in historic preservation. She helped establish the goals of NSDAR. Four Washington, DC women founded the first chapter on October 11, 1890. The National Society of the DAR was incorporated by congressional charter in 1896.
DAR's motto is "God, Home, and Country."
In this same period, such organizations as the Sons of the American Revolution (SAR), 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.
Read more about Daughters Of The American Revolution: Historic Programs, Exhibits and Library At DAR Headquarters, Notable DAR Members, References in Popular Culture
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“During the late war [the American Revolution] I had an infallible rule for deciding what [Great Britain] would do on every occasion. It was, to consider what they ought to do, and to take the reverse of that as what they would assuredly do, and I can say with truth that I was never deceived.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
“Saul and Jonathan were lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in
their death they were not divided: they were swifter than eagles, they were stronger than lions.
Ye daughters of Israel, weep over Saul, who clothed you in scarlet,
with other delights, who put on ornaments of gold upon your apparel.
How are the mighty fallen in the midst of the battle!
Jonathan, thou wast slain in thine high places.”
—Bible: Hebrew Second Samuel (l. I, 23–25)
“Are we bereft of citizenship because we are mothers, wives and daughters of a mighty people? Have women no country—no interests staked in public weal—no liabilities in common peril—no partnership in a nation’s guilt and shame?”
—Angelina Grimké (1805–1879)
“What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July? I answer: A day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him your celebration is a sham.”
—Frederick Douglass (c.1817–1895)
“A revolution does not last more than fifteen years, the period which coincides with the flourishing of a generation.”
—José Ortega Y Gasset (1883–1955)