Dumbarton Oaks – First Postcards, 1945

In February 1945, the Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection ordered twelve black-and-white postcards to be printed by the Washington, DC, firm Judd and Detweiler. The views on the postcards included three of the Main House, an aerial view of the property, and views of the principal garden areas. Each image was printed in an edition of five thousand in a small, 3½-by-5½-inch format. The postcards were made from photographs taken by Stewart Brothers Photographers of Washington, DC, and dated to the early 1930s.

Presumably, the success of the postcards lead to a reorder in June of five thousand prints of the Rose Terrace card and the addition of four new cards. The Dumbarton Oaks Archives has acquired copies of all sixteen cards.

Dumbarton Oaks offered guided tours of the gardens to the public on Wednesdays and Saturdays beginning in May 1945. The postcards and, eventually, a printed guide were available to visitors at the gate house.

The Judd and Detweiler printing firm was established in 1868 in Washington, DC, by John Gough Judd (1824–1895) and Frederick May Detweiler (1830–1905). By 1883, they were joined by their sons George H. Judd and Fred F. and George H. Detweiler. In 1912, the firm moved to a new printing plant at Florida Avenue and Eckington Place NE called The Big Print Shop. Judd and Detweiler began printing the National Geographic Magazine in 1896.