Category Archives: DAR

DAR

The New & Improved DAR Library Website Catalog

Leave a comment

The DAR Library in Washington, DC is a world class genealogical library with a focus on American historical research. Did you know that being a DAR member is NOT a requirement to visit the library either in person or to browse its online catalog?

The DAR Library recently announced that a new software program, Primo, has been instituted to make searching the library catalog much easier.

To try out the new features, first visit the new online catalog.

Next, click on Open Library Catalog and the new search box will open:

There is a short description below the search box, highlighting some of the new search features. Use the box to search the library catalog.

Note that the catalog is in Beta testing.

I entered “Stufflebean” as a search term. Among the hits that appeared were not only items I had donated to the DAR Library, but also quite a few results for books in which a Stufflebean family member is mentioned. Pretty neat!

Be aware that many of the DAR Library resources – like all the books – are only accessible in person. On the other hand, remember that most books aren’t unique, one-of-a-kind. A DAR Library search might turn up new-to-you books that not only pertain to your research, but might be found at a library near you or, better yet, found in a digitized version online.

Primo even offers a “Virtual Shelf” glance so you can look at titles of other nearby books on the library shelves.

Although Primo is in Beta testing, I had no problems with any of my searches.

Check out the DAR Library website catalog using the new Primo software. It’s so easy to use!

 

DAR

DAR Magazine Digital Archive

2 Comments

With tomorrow being Independence Day in the United States, it seems only fitting to highlight a resource available online in digitized format to the general public on the website of the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution.

First, click on the LIBRARY link just above the home page photo. When the drop down menu opens, click on RESOURCES.

Next, click on the second choice in blue on the left side of the page – DAR Magazine Archive.

I couldn’t capture the whole list of years by decades in the screen shot, but the list goes down to the 1890s when the DAR Magazine first began publication.

The magazines can be searched, at least up until 1998. I have found that single words work best in the search box. For example, I entered “Isabelle Hubbard,” who was the first State Regent of California. No hits were returned, but when I entered only “Hubbard,” a long list appeared with all the Hubbards mentioned in various issues of the magazine.

While the DAR Magazine included many reports of DAR business, it also contained many historical articles relating to the early history of the United States, family Bible records and military records. Thousands of genealogical queries have been published through the years.

What I like about this list of results is that each entry is identified as SUBJECT, as in subject of the article or person who gave a report, ILLUSTRATION, which is often a photograph of the person or GENEALOGICAL QUERY, which speaks for itself.

Remember, DAR has been in the ancestry business for almost 126 years. A while back, I wrote about my husband’s David Lewis-Ann Beeson family from North Carolina. Many people had exact dates of birth for these children born at a time and in a place where vital records were not yet kept by the government. I figured there had to be a Bible record around somewhere and one of my readers tipped me off to where I could find it – in a 1936 issue of the DAR Magazine!

It is definitely worth taking the time to search or browse if you are looking for colonial or early American ancestors.

Happy 141st Birthday to the United States of America!

DAR

DAR Glass Commemorative Coasters – 1920s?

Leave a comment

Boy! Did I learn a lot today. And it’s been fun. I have had two small glass coaster/trivets, each 3 1/2 inches in diameter,  that depict scenes relating to the Daughters of the American Revolution, of which I am a member. A friend gave me these two little glass items and I have had them sitting in a drawer for years. Today, I decided I needed to learn more about them and why they were created.

Here is what one looks like:

DARMansionCoaster1

The first coaster/trivet says “DAR Mansion, Addison, Vermont.” A quick check on Google showed it to be the John Strong Mansion, owned by the Vermont State Society Daughters of the American Revolution. John Strong was a patriot during the American Revolution.

The second trivet (not pictured) says “Daughters of the American Revolution” on it and has the image of a colonial patriot on horseback. There is a steepled building of some sort on the far left side, behind the horse. Originally, I thought this was George Washington, but couldn’t figure out what steeple that would be. It’s not the Mason’s George Washington Memorial in Alexandria, Virginia, as that building doesn’t have a steeple like that.

After rethinking a bit, I believe the horseman is Paul Revere and the building is the historic Old North Church in Boston, Massachusetts.

These little glass items are typical of pressed glass decorative pieces made in the 1800s and early 1900s, so I wondered how old my little dishes might be. I also looked at a well known auction site and there was a third glass coaster up for sale there. The image was the DAR Madonna of the Trail statue that is in Springfield, Ohio and the plate was dated 4 July 1928. Maybe these trivets dated from the 1920s – or maybe not.

As luck would have it, when I telephoned the John Strong Mansion, the lady who was on duty at the time, Laura, said it wasn’t busy and she could perhaps give me some of the history of these pieces of glass.

It turns out that these are formally called “cup saucers” and were probably made by the Pairpoint Glass Company located in Sagamore, Massachusetts.

In the 1700s and 1800s, hot tea was served in cups that had no handles. To cool the tea more quickly, the tea was poured into the cup saucer and the cup was placed on a cup plate on the table. Ladies and gentlemen then had to manage to drink the tea from the saucers without having it drip down the front of their clothes.

While cup saucers have been around for a very long time, my cup saucers look very much like they were struck from the same mold as several listed on the auction site online in a listing separate from the Madonna of the Trail saucer I’ve already mentioned. A set of four in one listing could be had for only $7.99, but there were no bids posted. That made me a bit suspicious about how old – or modern – they might be.

Although these cup saucers depict historic events, Laura and I came to the consensus that the DAR cup saucers likely date from the time of the U.S. Bicentennial in 1976. The National Society likely had a contract with Pairpoint Glass whereby Daughters from local chapters or state societies could submit historic images with a very brief description, have their own cup saucers created and then sold these items as fund raisers.

It turns out that the John Strong Mansion has several of these Pairpoint Glass cup saucers, but they do NOT have one depicting their own house. I’ve offered to donate mine to them, as I love returning old things to their original homes.

Today has, indeed, been a fun day.