Dalton and the World
The Odyssey of Lenna Gertrude Judd

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Community leader, world traveler, and horticulturalist are but a few of the titles used to describe the life of Dalton, Georgia’s, Lenna Gertrude Judd. This online exhibit focuses on postcards she collected from her many trips abroad. This small slice of Mrs. Judd’s life is part of a larger physical exhibit that utilizes not only these postcards but also her personal photographs, documents, and artifacts. Together these items trace the remarkable life and times of a “progressive” woman of the early years of the twentieth century.

In 1903, while touring the South on their bicycles, Lenna Gertrude Judd, her husband Morton, and their six-year-old son Hubert stopped to rest in Dalton. The Judds, heirs to a family fortune generated from the brass manufacturing industry in Connecticut, found the climate beneficial to Morton’s health and, charmed by the local residents and the mountains and valleys of Northwest Georgia, chose to move from New York to make Dalton their permanent home.

True to the beliefs and actions of the Progressive Era, Judd devoted her energies to the betterment of her community and the lives of the area’s residents. Committees and organizations as diverse as the Red Cross, Loveman Memorial Library, Georgia State Parks Authority, and the Dalton Women’s Club all saw the imprint of her influence.

After her husband’s death in 1919, Lenna began the conversion of the wooden frame farmhouse in which the family had lived since their arrival in Dalton. By 1921, the simple home had become the brick and stucco mansion she named Oneonta, a Cherokee Indian word meaning “resting place.” Situated on 150 acres and surrounded by gardens, springs, waterfalls, and a working dairy farm, Oneonta was not only a home for Judd, her son, and grandchildren but also the center of the social life of Dalton and a symbol of refinement.

The flower gardens and orchards of Oneonta achieved such renown that tour groups from Chattanooga and the surrounding region organized visits to view the wondrous grounds and landscape. Judd’s horticultural talents attracted the eye of Dr. Lange Layne Stewart, president of Yenching University (now Beijing University), who in 1924 invited Lenna to visit China and supervise the design of the university’s gardens.

While on this journey and others during her lifetime, Judd and her family toured the world in a manner befitting a family of their social and financial standing. Among the souvenirs they collected were postcards from many exotic and unfamiliar locales. More than merely a record of places visited, these postcards offer a glimpse of a Europe and Asia seen by many today as a quaint and forgotten world. The cards are also interesting from an artistic standpoint in that they represent the style of the period, depicting both photographs and screened lithographs.

Dalton and the World The Odyssey of Lenna Gertrude Judd

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Dalton and the World
The Odyssey of Lenna Gertrude Judd