DAR | Museum - Featured Objects

In each issue, the bimonthly DAR magazine, American Spirit, highlights an object from the DAR Museum collection in its "National Treasures" feature. These objects, often recent accessions or important pieces in the current exhibit, always have a story to tell about American history.

National Treasures

Something to Crow About

Standing upright on its copper sphere, this rooster appears ready to crow. Made of lead, sheet iron and copper and still showing traces of its original gilding, the DAR Museum’s engaging circa-1850 weathercock represents metalcraft at its best. According to oral history, the weather vane—an object long synonymous with the American folk art movement—graced the top of St. John’s Methodist Church in Watertown, Mass., in the mid-19th century. The Joseph Coolidge Chapter gave it to the Museum in 1957.