Daughters of the American Revolution

The organization 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.^[1] A non-profit group, they work to promote historic preservation, education and patriotism. The DAR 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. 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 (or DAR), the official name of this organization is the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution (NSDAR).

National Society Daughters of the American Revolution 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 must be “personally acceptable” to the society. In the late 20th century the society's membership totaled approximately 180,000, with some 3,000 local chapters throughout the United States and in several other countries.^[2]

DAR's motto is "God, Home, and Country."

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, ending her piece with the question, "Where will the Sons and Daughters of the American Revolution place Hannah Arnett?" ^[3] 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.^[3] The first meeting of the society was held August 9, 1890.^[3]

The first DAR chapter began on October 11, 1890, at 2 p.m. at the Strathmore Arms, the home of Mary Smith Lockwood, who was one of the DAR's four co-founders. Another one of the society's four co-founders was Eugenia Washington, a great-grandniece of George Washington. The other two were Ellen Hardin Walworth and Mary Desha. 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 met at the Strathmore Arms that day, but Washington, Desha, Lockwood, and Walworth are called co-founders since they held two to three meetings in August 1890.^[4]

The First Lady, Caroline Lavina Scott Harrison, wife of the United States President Benjamin Harrison, lent her prestige to the founding of DAR, and 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 DAR. DAR was incorporated by congressional charter in 1896.

In the same period as DAR was founded, 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.

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; Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, who sculpted it, was a member of DAR.^[5][6]

Historic programs

The DAR chapters raised funds to initiate a number of historic preservation and patriotic endeavors. They began a practice of installing small 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 women's 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.

Current membership and programs

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.^[1] 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.^[1]

^[7] http://www.dar.org/

Education outreach

The DAR contributes more than $1 million annually to support six schools that provide for a variety of special student needs.^[8] 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.^[9]

Patriotism

DAR Members’ love of country is evident in the multitude of patriotic endeavors they pursue, including:

• Providing more than 200,000 hours of volunteer time annually to veterans in 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

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.^[10]

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.^[11]

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.^[12]

Past Events of DAR

• 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.

• ^[13]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. Forestry 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. ^[14]

Todays DAR

There are currently nearly 180,000 members of the DAR, serving in approximately 3,000 chapters across the nation and in several foreign countries. More than 940,000 women have joined the organization since its founding 125 years ago. “Interest in membership is at all-time highs due to both the ability to share genealogical information through the internet and the fact that we offer today’s busy woman a meaningful opportunity to express her love of country and to complete the joyful responsibilities of citizenship,” said National Society DAR President General Lynn Forney Young. During the current three-year administration coinciding with the 125th anniversary celebration, the organization has issued a challenge to complete 10 million hours of service to America. DAR members from coast to coast will also participate in the National DAR Day of Service on October 11, 2015. This one day of nationwide service is just an example of the work that Daughters have been completing for 125 years in communities across the nation.

DAR members provided more than 3.5 million hours of community service across the world in 2013.

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.

Racial history

Performers at Constitution Hall

Washington, D.C., still had segregated facilities as of 1932 under laws established by a Southern-dominated Congress, which administered the city at the time. The DAR adopted a rule excluding African-American musicians from performing at Constitution Hall in response to complaints by some members against "mixed seating," as both blacks and whites were attracted to concerts of black artists.^[15]

In 1936, Sol Hurok, the manager of 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. As the issue became public, Anderson performed at a Washington-area black high school instead. The First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt also invited her to the White House to perform especially for her and President Roosevelt. During this time, Anderson came under considerable pressure from the NAACP not to perform for segregated audiences.^[16]

In 1939, Hurok, along with the NAACP and Howard University, petitioned the DAR to make an exception to the "white performers only" policy for Anderson, which the organization declined. Hurok tried to find a local high school for the performance, but the only suitable venue was an auditorium at a white high school (the public schools were segregated), and the school board refused to allow Anderson to perform there.^[16]

In response, Eleanor Roosevelt immediately resigned her membership in the DAR.^[15] The organization later apologized to Anderson and welcomed her to Constitution Hall on a number of occasions, starting in 1942 with a benefit concert for war relief during World War II.^[17] However, the DAR did not officially reverse its "white performers only" policy until 1952.^[18]

In 1945, African-American jazz singer Hazel Scott (then the wife of Democratic congressmen 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 Truman accepted without realizing there would be a controversy. Congressman Powell protested and asked Truman not to attend the tea; she chose to go, but said that she opposed discrimination (as did her husband). Letters of protest sent to the White House asked Bess Truman to resign from the DAR, but she declined to do so; other letters supported her attendance at the tea.^[19][20]

In 1964, Anderson chose Constitution Hall as the place to launch her farewell American tour.^[21]

April 20, 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, Miss Anderson was unable to attend the ceremony, so 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.^[22]

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.^[23] 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—a completely unexpected result. Batchelor traced her ancestry to a patriot, William Hood, who served in the colonial militia in Pennsylvania during the Revolution in the defense of Fort Freeland.^[24]

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; she officially became DAR member #623,128. 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.^[25] She was invited to appear on Good Morning America, where she was interviewed by the regular guest host John Lindsay, former mayor of New York.

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, a controversy arose when Lena Lorraine Santos Ferguson said she had been denied membership in a Washington, D.C. chapter of the DAR because she was black.^[26] The reporter Ronald Kessler quoted Ferguson's two white sponsors, Margaret M. Johnston and Elizabeth E. Thompson, as saying that although Ferguson met the lineage requirements and could trace her ancestry to Jonah Gay, fellow DAR members told them that Ferguson was not wanted because she was black.^[26]

Sarah M. King, the President General of the DAR, told Kessler that the DAR's chapters have autonomy in determining members. Asked if she thought this acceptable, she said, "If you give a dinner party, and someone insisted on coming and you didn't want them, what would you do?" King continued,

"Being black is not the only reason why some people have not been accepted into chapters. There are other reasons: divorce, spite, neighbors' dislike. I would say being black is very far down the line ... There are a lot of people who are troublemakers. You wouldn't want them in there because they could cause some problems."^[26]

After her comments were reported, the D.C. City Council threatened to revoke the DAR's real estate tax exemption. King said that Ferguson should have been admitted, and her application to join the DAR was handled "inappropriately". Representing Ferguson pro bono, lawyers from the Washington law firm of Hogan & Hartson began working with King to develop positive ways to ensure that blacks would not be discriminated against when applying for membership. The DAR changed its bylaws to bar discrimination "on the basis of race or creed". King announced a resolution to recognize "the heroic contributions of black patriots in the American Revolution".^[26]

As a result of the Washington Post story, Ferguson, a retired school secretary, 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."^[26] She became chairwoman and founder of the D.C. DAR Scholarship Committee. She died in March 2004 at the age of 75.

Focus on racial diversity

Since the mid-1980s, the organization 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.^[27] In 2008, DAR published 978-1-892237-10-1.pdf Forgotten Patriots: African American and American Indian Patriots in the Revolutionary War.^[27]

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 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 (the American government officials had escaped to Monticello and Charlottesville); Hemings and the other slaves were later released.

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 was able to purchase family members to help keep families intact.^[28] Since Hemings Bell has been honored as a Patriot, all of her female descendants qualify for membership in the DAR.^[29]

In June 2012, Wilhelmena Rhodes Kelly and Dr. Olivia Cousins became charter members of a chapter with more than one African-American member, in Queens, New York.;^[30] 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.

Notable DAR members

Past members

• Susan B. Anthony, American suffragist^[31]
• Clara Barton, American Red Cross founder^[31]
• Estelle Skidmore Doremus, supporter of the New York Philharmonic
• Mary Baker Eddy, founder of Christian Science church
• Infanta Eulalia of Spain, Spanish princess and author^[32]
• Lillian Gish, American actress^[31]
• Caroline Scott Harrison, former First Lady of the United States^[31]
• Grandma Moses, American folk artist^[31]
• Ginger Rogers, American actress and dancer^[31]
• Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, sculptor, art patron and collector, and founder in 1931 of the Whitney Museum of American Art^[33]

Living members

• Suzanne Bishopric, Director of Investment Management Division of the United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund^[31]
• Dr. Betsy Boze, American academic—Chief Executive Officer and Dean, Kent State University Stark^[34]
• Laura Welch Bush, former First Lady of the United States^[31]
• Rosalynn Smith Carter, former First Lady of the United States, politician, political and social activist^[31]
• Bo Derek, actress, former model, and conservative political activist^[31]
• Elizabeth Hanford 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^[31]
• Candace Whittemore Lovely, painter
• Janet Reno, former Attorney General of the United States^[31]
• Phyllis Schlafly, conservative political activist and writer^[31]

References in popular culture and other media

• Grant Wood used the DAR as the subject for his 1932 painting Daughters of Revolution. At that time, he thought the group was characterized by elitism and class distinction.
• In the musical The Music Man, the lyrics to "Wells Fargo Wagon" include "The D.A.R. have sent a cannon for the courthouse square."
• In Sinclair Lewis's 1935 novel It Can't Happen Here, the DAR is generally portrayed as "composed of females who spend one half of their waking hours boasting of being descended from the seditious American colonists of 1776, and the other and more ardent half in attacking all contemporaries who believe in precisely the principles for which those ancestors struggled."
• In chapter 39 of Thomas Wolfe's novel You Can't Go Home Again (1940), the German character Franz Heilig lumps the DAR in with salon Communists, the Chamber of Commerce, and the American Legion. He said all were like the Nazi Party in repressing dissent.
• Abbey Bartlet, the first lady in the fictional television drama The West Wing, was a member of the DAR. (4×18—Privateers)
• A running joke in the movie The American President (1995) is that President Shepard (Michael Douglas) accidentally skipped a paragraph during a speech to the DAR, causing minor embarrassment to the White House.
• The fictional characters Emily and Rory Gilmore of the TV series Gilmore Girls are members of the DAR.
• The fictional character Lovey Howell of Gilligan's Island is a member of the DAR.
• The fictional character Margaret Houlihan of M*A*S*H is blackballed in the 1950s by her mother-in-law from being admitted as a member of the DAR.
• In the play The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams, the character Amanda, who refers to her cultivated Southern past, is asked by her daughter if she attended the DAR meeting.
• At the end of Stan Freberg Presents The United States of America Volume One The Early Years, a member of the DAR (played by June Foray) attempts to lodge a protest about the recording.
• Phil Ochs's song "Love Me, I'm a Liberal" mentions "put[ting] down the old D.A.R, D.A.R.: that's the Dykes of the American Revolution."
• The Black Crowes have a song, "Goodbye Daughters of the Revolution".
• Walter Matthau's final line in Grumpy Old Men is, "The Daughters of the American Revolution are having a dance at the VFW Hall."
• Wheel of Fortune held a filing at DAR Constitution Hall
• Jeopardy tape its Power Players Week at DAR Constitution Hall on Saturday, April 21, 2012
• In Pan Am, a historical TV series, the mother of the characters Kate and Laura Cameron, who are both stewardesses, belongs to the DAR.
• The band Jets to Brazil has the lyric "daughters of the revolution you're freezing in your furs" in the song "Lemon Yellow Black".
• The Chad Mitchell Trio song, "The John Birch Society," features the line: "Do you want Mrs. Khrushchev in there with the DAR?"
• In the novel The Help, Skeeter's mother, Charlotte, reveals to her that she fired Constantine while the DAR chapter was at their house.
• The Daughters of the American Revolution Library and Genealogical Research System (GRS) are featured on the April 27 episode of NBC’s acclaimed series, Who Do You Think You Are? The series follows celebrities as they embark on personal journeys of self-discovery to trace their family ancestry. In the April 27, 2012 episode, actor Rob Lowe ventures into his past, dating back to the American Revolution. One of the stops on his journey is at the DAR Library, one of the premier genealogical research centers in the nation, where he receives interesting clues about one of his ancestors. Using the online DAR Genealogical Research System (GRS), he is able to locate information about his ancestor and discover hints as to where to continue his search.

• The Daughters of the American Revolution Library and Genealogical Research System (GRS) will be featured on the April 19 episode of TLC’s acclaimed series, “Who Do You Think You Are?” The series follows celebrities as they embark on personal journeys of self-discovery to trace their family ancestry. In the April 19 episode, Bill Paxton ventures into his past, dating back to the American Revolution. One of the stops on his journey is at the DAR Library, one of the premier genealogical research centers in the nation, where he receives interesting clues about one of his ancestors using the online DAR Genealogical Research System (GRS).

See also

• Children of the American Revolution
• Sons of the American Revolution
• Sons of the Revolution
• Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War
• The United Empire Loyalists' Association of Canada
• United Daughters of the Confederacy
• United States Daughters of 1812

References

 This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the National Archives and Records Administration.

Further reading

• Bailey, Diana L. American Treasure: The Enduring Spirit of the DAR. 2007. Walsworth Publishing Company.
• Hunter, Ann Arnold. A Century of Service: The Story of the DAR. 1991, Washington, DC. National Society Daughters of the American Revolution.
• Strayer, Martha. The D.A.R.: An Informal History. 1958, Washington, DC. Public Affairs Press. (critically reviewed by Gilbert Steiner as covering personalities but not politics, Review, The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, v.320, "Highway Safety and Traffic Control" (Nov. 1958), pp. 148–49.)
• 125 Years of Devotion to America.- This 120 page hard cover book contains inspiring reflections, prayers and ceremonial excerpts that capture Daughters’ unparalleled devotion to our American way of life during some of the most important moments in the history of our Society and our Nation.
• Indomitable Spirit-The life story of Ellen Harding Walworth one of the NSDAR founders.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Daughters of the American Revolution.

• National Society Daughters of the American Revolution, Official website
• "DAR Historic Sites and Database", includes national map
• Daughters of the American Revolution at 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
• Madonna of the Trail Monument, Website
• "Daughters of the American Revolution", image by Grant Wood
• 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