Daughters of the American Revolution Insignia has Middletown Ties

     Some of Godfrey's collections touch on history far outside the Library's New England focus. The insignia of the Daughters of the American Revolution is a point of pride for the Society. One Godfrey collection suggests that the insignia might have had Connecticut ties.

    The Godfrey Library is the repository of the Collection of books and papers of Daughters of the American Revolution, Wadsworth Chapter. Page 29 of the Historian's Report, Volume II recounts the founding of the Chapter - and its ties to the insignia's creator. According to the website of a South Carolina DAR chapter, George Goode designed the insignia, modeling it on his mother's spinning wheel.
    
      "Our indebtedness to Dr. G. Brown Goode of Washington, and to his wife, our first member, can never be over-estimated. Dr. Goode, a graduate of Wesleyan and a citizen of Middletown (we are proud to recall) while visiting friends in Middletown, in  1891, spoke of his great interest in a new society that was organized a year before in Washington, and known as the Daughters of the American Revolution. He so impressed some of our patriotic women that he was requested to forward from Washington the requisite application blanks, twelve in number. These blanks were received and soon executed, and his ladies are now designed as charter members of Wadsworth Chapter."

     Wadsworth Chapter, Connecticut's first, therefore, can claim a role in the creation of DAR's best known symbol - or perhaps the reverse is true!

    Interested in the history of Connecticut's DAR chapters? Check out our library catalog for a DAR publications, papers, and more!