dh-hfp-foreword

FOREWORD Dumbarton House, built ca.1800, remains an outstanding example of Federal period architecture that brings to life the earliest days of our national capital for modern visitors. Joseph Nourse, first Register of the Treasury and one of our nation’s earliest civil servants, moved into the house with his family in 1804. Standing on the fashionable heights of historic Georgetown, Dumbarton House served as the centerpiece of a working urban farm, surrounded by four acres of gardens and grounds that Nourse expanded to eight over time. During the nine years the Nourse family resided at Dumbarton House, they finished the home’s interior—furnishing the property with family pieces and decorating it according to the latest fashions. Thanks to Joseph’s meticulous record-keeping and thoughtful correspondence with his wife and children, the museum has been able to learn a great deal about the personality of Joseph Nourse, his relationship with his family, and their life at Dumbarton House. A desire to more accurately place their life within the context of our early capital led to the development of this Historic Furnishings Plan for Dumbarton House.

The historic property, then named Cedar Hill, remained the residence of Joseph Nourse until 1813, when he sold it to Charles Carroll—a cousin of the signer of the Declaration of Independence—who renamed the site “Belle Vue.” Nourse moved out of the house, taking with him, of course, the family furnishings, record books, and correspondence. The house then changed hands a number of times, until The National Society of The Colonial Dames of America [National Society] purchased the property to serve as their national headquarters and museum house in 1928. A women’s non-profit organization, the National Society dedicates itself to historic preservation, patriotic service, and education.

Restoring the property under the direction of architectural historian Fiske Kimball and architect Horace Peaslee, the National Society opened the renamed Dumbarton House to the public in 1932 as a historic house museum dedicated to the early history of our nation.

In the early 1990s, after almost six decades of stewardship, the National Society recognized the need for further attention to their historic headquarters. To

commemorate the organization’s centennial in 1991, the organization renovated and expanded Dumbarton House—modernizing the facility and adding a program and meeting space. Centennial celebrations increased awareness of Dumbarton House and its rich history, inspiring the donation of several significant Nourserelated materials. Among the gifts, from the estate of Mrs. Charles J. Nourse— whose husband was a direct descendant of Joseph Nourse—were nearly 1,000 pages of archival material related to the Nourse family. The account books and manuscripts in the trove, including papers related to the family’s residency at Dumbarton House, provided remarkable insight into 18th and 19th century material culture. The National Society, through a number of dedicated volunteers, began the painstaking process of transcribing those historic documents and in 1994, under the curatorial guidance of Oscar Fitzgerald, opened the exhibition In Search of Joseph Nourse: 1754-1841—illuminating, for the first time, the important role played by Nourse in the early federal government.

The Nourse family became central to the museum’s interpretation and in 2002 the Dumbarton House Board, led by then-chairman Nancy Fairhurst and museum properties committee chairman Janie Grantham, revised the museum’s mission statement to reflect this importance. Museum curator at the time, Brian Lang, further researched the Nourse family and their time at Dumbarton House, building relationships with a number of Nourse descendants who shared the museum’s interest in preserving the legacy of Joseph Nourse. To more accurately interpret the museum to the period of the Nourse residency, the Dumbarton House Board budgeted funds to create a Historic Furnishing Plan for the museum, and in 2006 the museum contracted noted scholar Ellen Donald to author the plan.

Working with Lang, current curator Scott Scholz, and several interns, Donald researched Nourse family manuscripts, period Georgetown newspaper advertisements, and inventories of similar period households in order to reconstruct—as accurately as possible—the interior spaces of Dumbarton House between the years 1804 and 1813. The methodology for the study is further explained in the body of this document.

With the completion of the Historic Furnishings Plan, Dumbarton House will enter a new era of interpretive accuracy. This plan will serve as the foundation for a museum-wide re-interpretation—identified as a major institutional goal in the 2010-2015 Dumbarton House Strategic Plan. Nationally, sites like Dumbarton House provide a fundamental source of historic education for the American public, allowing America’s citizens tangible contact with their nation’s history. From their very inception in 1891, The National Society of The Colonial Dames of America has been fighting to preserve these vital sites— seeking to inspire, educate, and enrich the lives of Americans through a connection to our shared past. The Historic Furnishings Plan will allow Dumbarton House to bring the period of our nation’s and its capital’s earliest days to life, advancing the legacy of the National Society for current and future generations of Americans.

Karen L. Daly Executive Director Dumbarton House