The National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution is a patriotic organization formed in 1889 and chartered by the United States Congress in 1906. SAR has more than 34,000 members in 500 Local Chapters with members living in all of the 50 states and 23 foreign countries.
Among the members are 15 Presidents of the United States, including George W. Bush and his father George H. W. Bush, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Harry Truman and Theodore Roosevelt. SAR also has among its members Sir Winston Churchill and King Juan Carlos I of Spain, both of whom trace their ancestry to Revolutionary War patriots.
The SAR National Headquarters in Louisville, Kentucky, is more properly a historic shrine honoring our Patriot Ancestors. It is a museum of art and artifacts from the colonial and revolutionary periods, and a genealogical library. The museum includes an extensive collection of historical American paintings and an exact replica of the Liberty Bell.
The existing SAR Library contains 50,000 books, periodicals, journals microfilm, and microfiche, including 5,000 family genealogies in hard copy and 8,000 books on the American Revolution. The Library has three nationally important collections of materials relating to George Washington, the Marquis de Lafayette, and George Rogers Clark.
The mission of SAR is to promote patriotism and to reaffirm those values on which our country was established. To achieve its goals, SAR has embarked upon a campaign to raise $6 million. Funds will be used for the construction of a new SAR Genealogical Library and for an endowment that will provide a permanent source of support for SAR programs and facilities.
The SAR Genealogical Research Library located in Loiusville Kentucky contains over 55,000 items including family histories; local, county, and state records; and online genealogical databases. The Library is open to the public on weekdays from 9:30AM until 4:30PM and on the third Saturday of each month from 9:00AM until 4:00PM.