Living History: The National Society of Colonial Dames in the State of New York

The National Society of The Colonial Dames of America (NSCDA) is one of several women’s organizations that were founded in the 1890s during a surge of American popular interest in colonial revival, lineage, and historic house museums.    Still active today, the NSCDA, smaller and more exclusive than the better known Daughters of the American Republic, owns or maintains dozens of historic properties as reminders of America’s origins and sources for their programs of teaching patriotic values.   Their restoration work is often mentioned in studies of historic home museums, but there is no scholarly in-depth institutional study of the organization, its members, and their purpose.

 My methodology is anthropological as well as historical, combining interviews and research in NSCDA published materials and archives as well as site visits and secondary sources.  My research questions focus on the ownership, restoration, presentation and interpretation of history at these houses as well as on the role of a women’s organization based on genealogy in present American culture.  The continuity of this institution permits us to examine how the meaning of membership is transmitted and changed over generations.  I plan to focus on the New York Chapter of the NSCDA as a first step in a larger study.  The New York chapter was one of the founding chapters of the National Society, and their traditions highlight the role of women in the early Dutch colony.  Their motto is: “Women are the keepers of the past.”