One of the first house museums in Washington DC was Dumbarton House, hq of
the National Society of Colonial Dames.  Dumbarton House is at
2715 Q St., NW, Washington DC and the Society purchased it in
1931.  The house itself had been built in 1751.
They had been active in historic preservation since the 1890s when founded
and were involved with restoring the church at Jamestown VA, Plymouth
Rock, Sulgrave Manor, Monticello, Wakefield, John Marshall House, Carlisle
House, Valley Forge, Pohick Church, and others.
 
Matthew Gilmore
 
 According to Linda Young: .
. Tim Daniels asked about the history of house museums, a topic that
. interests me too.  There are two distinct directions in house museums:
. famous residents and furnishings.  They clearly have different roots.  Mt
. Vernon seems to be the first 'famous resident' house museum (1850s), unless
. you count Sir John Soane's Museum in London (1813), which is a bit of a
. crossover between the two types and a standard antiquarian museum.
..
. For re-created houses, specially interiors, the origin seems to be in the
. great exhibitions of the 19thC - I think the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial
. Exposition was the first, with its colonial kitchen.  However, I seem to
. recall that there is a slightly earlier room re-creation in the town museum
. at Deerfield (not Historic Deerfield), which has displayed much the same
. contents (except for fashionable re-arranging) since the early 1870s.
..
. I don't think there is any good thorough published study of this
. phenomenon, though there are plenty of partial references.  Here are a few:
..
. John Herbst, 'Historic Houses' in Leon and Rosenzweig, History Museums in
. the US (1989)
..
. Brief mention in Edward Alexander, Museums in Motion (1979)
..
. I'd be interested to hear what other Museum-L readers know or think.
..
. Linda Young
. Cultural Heritage Management
. University of Canberra
. Australia
. [log in to unmask]
..
 
 
 
Matthew Gilmore
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