History Lessons
You don’t always have to learn about history from a text book. Immerse yourself into early-American history, centuries-old gardens, and historic preservation by digging deeper into what we’re learning at Dumbarton House.
- All
- Collections
- History of the Home
Collections
Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Needlework: Samplers and Female Education in Early America
From their beginnings as reference pieces for various stitches to Victorian masterpieces, samplers serve as valuable records in the history of women’s education. While frequently ...
Education
Georgetown: Past – 1776
Indigenous Peoples and Early Encounters – While European accounts of life in what is now known as Georgetown begin in 1608 with John Smith’s encounter with ...
Collections
Rings, Brooches, and … Hair?
Death and Mourning in the Federal Era “Our new Constitution is now established, and has an appearance that promises permanency; but in this world nothing ...
Collections
Woman vs. Moth
Integrated Pest Management in a Historic House Museum A few weeks after starting as Archives & Collections Manager at Dumbarton House, I was cleaning the ...
Education
Ninety Years of Dumbarton House!
In 1927, the National Board of The National Society of the Colonial Dames of America (NSCDA) approved that the Society should “acquire an old, historic ...
History of the Home
The Hidden Figures of Dumbarton House: Slavery and Servitude within the Nourse family Household
For over a decade interns, volunteers, and staff at Dumbarton House have been researching the question—did the Nourse family have any enslaved workers or indentured ...