DAR

RICHARD: Emily, I didn’t know we were having company for dinner.
EMILY: Oh well, it was just sort of a spur of the moment thing. Chase’s mother and I are in the DAR together and he just moved back to Hartford, and it just seemed like a nice idea.

DAR stands for Daughters of the American Revolution, an organisation for women who are directly descended from someone involved in the United States’ efforts towards independence, especially the Revolutionary War.

The DAR works to promote historic preservation, education, and patriotism, with a motto of “God, Home, and Country”. It was founded in 1890 as a sister organisation to the Sons of the American Revolution, and was supported by First Lady Caroline Harrison, the wife of President Benjamin Harrison. It currently has around 180 000 members organised into about 300 chapters.

In real life the DAR is basically a genealogy-based service organisation which does worthy things like raise funds for historic buildings, give scholarships, conduct essay contests, volunteer to support veterans, participate in citizenship ceremonies, and hold exhibitions.

However, in the Gilmore Girls universe, the DAR is a highly exclusive women’s club whose wealthy members seem to spend most of their time having tea parties and looking down on others. I suspect this reflects more how the DAR might have been in the 1930s and ’40s – it now works very hard to promote diversity and tolerance.

In real life, the DAR has a chapter in both Hartford and West Hartford that Emily might have belonged to.