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Community Corner

DAR Museum Exhibition, "Creating the Ideal Home, 1800-1939: Comfort and Convenience in America"

What:  



DAR Museum
exhibition:



“Creating the
Ideal Home, 1800-1939: Comfort and Convenience in America”

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Date:

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October
2, 2013 October 4,
2013 – August 30,
2014

 



Hours:



Monday -
Friday 9:30 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.



Saturday 9:00
a.m. - 5:00 p.m.



Closed
Sundays and Federal holidays



 



Address:



DAR Museum,
1776 D Street NW, Washington DC 20006



 



Telephone:



(202)
879-3241



 



Web
site:
         



www.dar.org/museum



 



Admission:       



Free to the
public. To schedule a group tour call (202) 879-3241.



 



Description:      

This exhibition explores how we have evolved from the fireplace and washing
clothes by hand to the many conveniences we take for granted today like
automated electric appliances, plumbing and central heating. The comforts and
conveniences that define modern life did not come about overnight but evolved
during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Daily chores became
easier, especially for the housewife, as American inventors patented all sorts
of labor-saving devices from the vacuum to the washing machine. Technology also
brought about ready entertainment and instant communication through the radio
and telephone. Lighting advanced from the flickering candle to a bright, gas
powered flame. Expectations forever changed with the introduction of electricity
into homes beginning in the 1880s. Electrically powered devices like the light
bulb and toaster defined the modern house by the roaring 1920s. The 1939
World’s Fair in New York City celebrated a “Century of Progress” with the debut
of the television, a wonder that mesmerized visitors at the RCA building. Over
sixty objects dating from the late eighteenth to the early twentieth centuries
will be on exhibit showing the “latest” devices that no one could live without.
In the final analysis, however, did these devices actually save time or did
they create more work?   

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