The exquisitely detailed furniture of craftsman John Shearer is showcased in the DAR Museum exhibition “‘A True North Britain’: The Furniture of John Shearer, 1790-1820,” which runs from October 8, 2010, through February 26, 2011. Noted not only for its form but also for the politically charged symbols inlaid in many pieces, the furniture helps to explore early America’s cultural ties to Great Britain during the most contentious period in the two nations’ shared history.

From the last years of the bustle to the flapper era, unprecedented changes in women’s fashion took place, which reflected the underlying seismic shifts in women’s roles in American society. The DAR Museum exhibition, “Fashioning the New Woman: 1890-1925,” on display October 5, 2012 through August 31, 2013, traces the evolution of women’s fashion and how it reflected the changing societal roles and activities of women during the Progressive Era.