National Society of the Colonial Dames of America

The organization was founded in 1891, shortly after the founding of a similar society, the Colonial Dames of America (CDA), which was created to have a centrally organized structure under the control of the parent Society in New York City.

The NSCDA was intended as a federation of State Societies in which each unit had a degree of autonomy.^[3] Another society formed around the same time was the Daughters of the American Revolution.

Historic preservation became an early focus of the organization. In 1896, New York City leased the Van Cortlandt House to the National Society of Colonial Dames in the State of New York for restoration and operation as a historic house museum.^[4]

In 1928, the national organization purchased a Federal-period house in Georgetown for use as its headquarters. The property, renamed Dumbarton House, was subsequently restored to its early nineteenth-century appearance and became the organization's historic house museum as well as its national headquarters.^[5]

The organization includes 43 corporate societies across 42 states and the District of Columbia.^[6] Its national headquarters is located at Dumbarton House in Washington, D.C.^[7] The Society's activities include historic preservation, patriotic service, educational programs, museum work, and scholarships.^[8] Historic house museums owned, operated, or supported by NSCDA corporate societies include:

• Andrew Low House, Savannah, Georgia
• Burgwin-Wright House, Wilmington, North Carolina
• Henry B. Clarke House, Chicago, Illinois
• Dumbarton House, Washington, DC, the Society's national headquarters
• Governor Stephen Hopkins House, Providence, Rhode Island
• Gunston Hall, Mason Neck, Virginia
• Haywood Hall, Raleigh, North Carolina
• Old Indian Agency House, Portage, Wisconsin
• Hoover-Minthorn House, Newberg, Oregon
• Liberty Hall, Frankfort, Kentucky
• McElroy Octagon House, San Francisco, California
• Plum Grove Historic House, Iowa City, Iowa
• Stenton, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• Ximenez-Fatio House, St. Augustine, Florida
• Mount Clare, Baltimore, Maryland
• McAllister House Museum, Colorado Springs, Colorado
• Webb-Deane-Stevens Museum, Wethersfield, Connecticut
• Hotel de Paris Museum, Georgetown, Colorado
• Joel Lane Museum House, Raleigh, North Carolina
• Old First Presbyterian Church of Wilmington, Wilmington, Delaware
• Tate House, Portland, Maine
• Moffat-Ladd House, Portsmouth, New Hampshire
• Whitehall Museum House, Middletown, Rhode Island^[9]
• William Hickling Prescott House, Boston, Massachusetts
• Wilton House Museum, Richmond, Virginia
• Peachfield, Westampton, New Jersey

The NSCDA has operated the American Indian Medical Scholarship program since 1928. The program provides financial assistance to students of American Indian, Alaska Native, or Native Hawaiian descent pursuing education in nursing, health care, or health education.^[10] The scholarship is intended in particular for students planning careers addressing health-care needs in Native communities.^[11]

• Helen Gilman Noyes Brown (1867–1942), philanthropist
• Carol Cadou, museum curator and administrator, former executive director of the society from 2021 - 2024
• Ruth Coltrane Cannon (1891–1965), preservationist, historian, and philanthropist
• Sarah Johnson Cocke (1865–1944), writer and civic leader
• Alice Creelman (1858–1952), artist and art dealer
• Mary Mayo Crenshaw (1875–1951), author
• Ella Loraine Dorsey (1853–1935), author, journalist, and translator
• Marion Moncure Duncan (1913–1978), businesswoman and lineage society leader
• Nellie Kinzie Gordon (1835–1917), writer and first president of the society
• Grace Gemberling (1903–1997), painter
• Anne Lyon Haight (1891–1977), author, essayist, and collector
• Mary Hilliard Hinton (1869–1961), painter, historian, and anti-suffragist
• Ida Sherman Jenne (1860–1934), President National of the U.S. Daughters of 1812
• Jane Tunstall Lingo (1924–2007), journalist and socialite
• Anne Hazen McFarland (1868–1930), physician and medical journal editor
• Florence MacKubin (1857–1918), portrait painter
• Mary Martha Presley Merritt (died 1994), politician
• Mary Lane Morrison (1907–1994), writer, historian and preservationist
• Theodora Agnes Peck (1882–1964), author and poet
• Isabel Weld Perkins (1876–1948), heiress, author, and society hostess
• Delia Lyman Porter (1858–1933), author, social reformer, and clubwoman
• Sara Agnes Rice Pryor (1830–1912), writer and community activist
• Sarah Corbin Robert (1886–1972), authority on parliamentary procedure
• Eron Rowland (1861/2–1951), historian and author
• Marion Margery Scranton (1884–1960), women’s suffrage activist
• Annie Bartlett Shepard (1861–1944), American anti-suffragist
• Sarah Logan Wister Starr (1873–1956), humanitarian
• Lilian Carpenter Streeter (1854–1935), social reformer and author
• Mary Oates Spratt Van Landingham (1852–1937), Vice President of the North Carolina Society of the Colonial Dames
• Presley Merritt Wagoner, 40th President General of the DAR
• Eva Ingersoll Wakefield (1892–1970), writer and poet
• Margaret Anderson Watts (1832–1905), social reformer
• May Rogers Webster (1873–1938), naturalist
• Anne Hollingsworth Wharton (1845–1928), writer and historian
• Helen M. Winslow (1851–1938), editor, author, publisher, and journalist
• Anna Wolcott (1868–1928), educator
• Frances Fisher Wood (1852–1938), educator, lecturer, and scientist
• Mary van Kleeck (1883–1972), social scientist and feminist

• Sons of the American Revolution (SAR)
• Children of the American Revolution (C.A.R.)
• The Mayflower Society
• Society of the Cincinnati
• Southern Dames of America