If you are curious about the Museum of Hounds & Hunting North America, we hope you will take time to walk the virtual halls of our Collection, learn about our educational programs, and read about our latest exhibition. The Museum of Hounds and Hunting North America has been called a "small jewel" and we want more people to visit, appreciate and share their experiences with the Museum. We want our Museum’s message to be meaningful and attractive through its educational exhibits, publications, website, conservation and research. After you tour our website, think about visiting the Museum of Hounds & Hunting North America the next time you're in the Washington, DC, area after the Museum reopens in 2009.

The Museum of Hounds & Hunting North America is located in the north wing of the Mansion at Morven Park, Leesburg, Virginia. The Museum houses an Exhibition Room, Fine Arts Room, Huntsmen’s Room, a Long Hall, a Small Room and a Reading Room. Interesting exhibits and displays are presented in the airy rooms and the inviting nooks and crannies that only such a large house can offer. One enters the Museum wing after passing through the Mansion’s drawing room. Cross the Long Hall and enter the Fine Arts Room, a large light filled room with high ceiling and tall windows. The Museum’s fine art collection is presented on the walls and in low cases surrounding you in this room. Retrace your steps to the Long Hall, turn right and find the walls covered with interesting photographs and artifacts of the current year’s exhibits. At the end of the hall is the Exhibition Room or Puppy Room, as it was called by Governor and Mrs. Davis, a rectangular shaped room with glass French doors at the far end and floor-to-ceiling windows on the near side. Again, this light filled room has glass fronted exhibition cases all around. Displays and exhibits in these cases change each year. Interesting exhibits examine the historical, cultural and sociological aspects of hunting with hounds. Costumes and traditional hunt attire, taxidermy, jewelry, letters, books and gadgets have all been excitingly displayed in this room. Beyond the Exhibition Room is the Small Room which houses the Museum’s button collection, the hats, gloves and crops of the hunting world and current decorative arts displays. Sidesaddles and habits, button making tools and dies, tiny treasures and bronzes make yearly appearances here. To the right is the Huntsmen’s Room, the sport’s Hall of Fame that pays homage to all huntsmen for their immense contributions to the sport from its earliest days to the present. Spend some time reading the tributes to the distinguished huntsmen who have been honored by their peers with inclusion in the room. Leaving the Huntsmen’s Room, retrace your steps to the Small Room just outside and climb the steps to the Reading Room. The Reading Room is a cozy upstairs room with bookcases on three sides and a wonderful old fireplace on the outside wall. Visitors to the Reading Room are always enchanted by the maps and pictures placed on the walls and old tomes residing in the bookcases.  After you leave the Museum, a short walk will take you to the Coach House. There you may enjoy the Kluge Artisan Room with two 40’ long multi-media exhibits featuring the life-size 19th C. workshops of a harness maker and a farrier. In all, one can spend a long afternoon enjoying the treasures of the Museum of Hounds & Hunting North America and Morven Park’s 1,200 acre estate.

MHHNA, The Westmoreland Davis Memorial Foundation, Inc., Morven Park, PO Box 6228, Leesburg, VA  20178.
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